The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee overseeing Rivers has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the state’s Sole Administration, Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (Rtd), to submit a breakdown of significant items in the N1.48 trillion 2025 budget.
The committee’s chairman, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo), issued the ultimatum at Monday’s budget defence session in Abuja.
Ihonvbere said the committee had reviewed the budget presented by the sole administrator and raised several issues.
He demanded that the administrator submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
Ihonvbere, the House Leader, demanded a breakdown of the allocation of N24 billion for CCTV cameras to be installed in the state government house.
He also requested justification for allocating N30 billion for the purchase of gunboats and N23 billion for contingency reserves.
The chairman said the committee also observed and questioned the allocation of state funds to existing federal projects without agreement with the federal government, regarding, among other things.
“We need additional details for those allocations. We request details of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months to enable us to know your financial flows so that we can weigh them 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 managed now.
“The documents we requested must reach us within 48 hours, assured that we are all on the same side regarding 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.
Ibas, represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy, Andrew Nweke, explained that the administration inherited many of the items in the budget.
According to him, the budget reflects the interests of the Rivers people as it was designed based on the needs assessment carried out by the implementation agencies.
Nweke said Rivers had many peculiarities, noting that the N30 billion earmarked for gunboats was to support security agencies in their fight against insecurity on the waterways.
He also said Rivers are often hit by floods, insecurity, and other unforeseen natural circumstances, and the N23 billion contingency fund was to address these.
For the N24 billion earmarked for CCTV in the State Government House, Nweke said the office of the Governor is one of honour, and modern technology security surveillance is needed, among other things.
He said the additional documents required by the committee will be available to them to facilitate the legislative process.
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