The House of Representatives has criticised parts of the Rivers State Government’s ₦1.48 trillion 2025 budget proposed by sole administrator Ibok-Ete Ibas. During the budget defence session in Abuja on Monday, lawmakers gave Rivers’ Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas, 48 hours to submit a breakdown of major items in the state’s 2025 budget. After suspending democratic
The House of Representatives has criticised parts of the Rivers State Government’s ₦1.48 trillion 2025 budget proposed by sole administrator Ibok-Ete Ibas.
During the budget defence session in Abuja on Monday, lawmakers gave Rivers’ Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas, 48 hours to submit a breakdown of major items in the state’s 2025 budget.
After suspending democratic governance in Rivers State, the Senate formed an ad hoc committee to oversee state activities and ensure peace, order, and good governance. The committee reviews the 2025 Rivers Appropriation Bill and monitors fund allocation for issues like pension backlogs.
The Senate approved the ₦1.48 trillion appropriation bill for Rivers State on June 25, 2025. Breaking the budget down, ₦120.8 billion is earmarked for debt servicing, ₦287.38 billion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and ₦1.077 trillion would be invested in capital projects.
During the budget defence session on Monday, Honourable Julius Ihonvbre, the Majority Leader of the House and Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Rivers, stated that the committee had reviewed the proposal and identified multiple concerns. These concerns pertain to a lack of alignment with value for money and transparency principles.
The majority leader of the House cited examples to raise concerns about some of the proposed expenditures, such as the N24 billion designated for CCTV and cameras in the state’s Government House. He demanded a breakdown of the N30 billion allotted for gunboats and the N23 billion set aside for contingency purposes in the Rivers budget, along with an explanation of the allocations.
The House required the administrator to submit the administration’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) along with a legal document that should precede the budget presentation. The committee chairman also enquired about various issues, including why state funds were being allocated to ongoing federal projects without a refund agreement with the federal government.
“We need additional details for those allocations. we request details of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months. The information will allow us to understand your financial flows so we can assess them relative to the budget deficit in terms of financing and implementing some of the projects.
“We also need details of transfers to local governments, essentially, how local government funds that came into the state are being managed at the moment.
“Those documents we have requested must reach us within 48 hours. Rest assured, our shared goal is to restore Rivers’ functionality.
“We want to ensure that we promote a lot of accountability and that the interests of the people themselves, no matter how remote they are from the state capital, are protected,” he said.
Responding to the House committee, the Rivers Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy, Andrew Nweke, told the lawmakers the budget and the proposed expenditure were for the important projects in the state based on the needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies before its proposal.
He went on to clarify the purpose of the budget, saying that the N23 billion contingency fund was intended to handle such issues and that the ₦30 billion designated for gunboats was meant to assist security agencies in their battle against insecurity on the waterways.
