Reps Gives Rivers Sole Administrator 48-Hour Deadline on N1.48 Trillion Budget Details

By Gloria Ikibah

The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Rivers State has given the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), 48 hours to provide a detailed breakdown of key items in the proposed N1.48 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill.

Committee Chairman, Rep. Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo), issued the ultimatum on Monday during the budget defence session in Abuja.

He said the committee had reviewed the budget as presented and found several areas needing clarification. He also directed the administrator to also submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which by law should precede any budget presentation.

Ihonvbere, who is also the House Majority Leader, raised concerns over the N24 billion allocated for CCTV installation at the Government House, and demanded a detailed explanation for the figure.

The committee further questioned the N30 billion proposed for purchasing gunboats and N23 billion set aside as contingency reserves, requesting clear justifications for these allocations.

The chairman said that the committee also observed and questioned the allocation of state funds to existing federal project without agreement with the Federal Government refunds among others.

“We need additional details for those allocations, we request details of state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months to enable us know your financial flows so that we can weigh it against the deficit in the budget in terms of financing it and carrying out some of the projects.

“We also need details of transfers to local governments, essentially how local government funds that come into the state are being managed at the moment.

“Those documents we have requested for must reach us within 48 hours; be rest assured that we are all on the same side in terms of getting rivers working again.

“We want to ensure that we will promote a lot of accountability and ensure that the interest of the people themselves, no matter how remote they are from the state capital, are protected,” he said.

Ihonvbere commended President Bola Tinubu for his intervention that brought about peace between the suspended Executive and Legislature in the state.

Earlier, Ibas who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy, Andrew Nweke explained that the administration inherited many of the items in the budget.

According him, the budget is a reflection of the interest of Rivers people as is was designed in line with needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies.

Nweke said that Rivers had a lot of peculiarities saying that the N30 billion earmarked for gun boats was to support security agencies in their fight against insecurity on the waterways.

He also said that Rivers is often hit by floods, insecurity and other unforeseen natural circumstances saying that the N23 billion contingency fund was to address such.

For the allocation N24 billion earmarked for CCTV in the state government house, Nweke said that office of the Governor is that of honour, saying that there was need to ensure modern technology security surveillance among others.

He said that the additional documents required by the committee will made available to the committee to enable easy legislative process.