An advocacy group, Niger Delta Advocate for Good Governance has raised alarm over the alleged financial mismanagement by the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok Etekwe Ibas (rtd).
In a statement signed by the spokesman of the group, Honest Woke on Thursday, it said “Our Advocate has obtained credible information from reliable sources within Government House that in July 2025, Admiral Ibas personally ordered the deduction of more than ₦200 million from each of the 23 local government areas. This brazen act of looting was carried out without transparency or accountability.
“To make matters worse, on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, during the monthly Joint Account Allocation Committee meeting at Government House, Admiral Ibas shocked the newly sworn-in LGA chairmen when he announced that over ₦1 billion would again be deducted from each council. He claimed the funds were for pension payments. In protest, the council chairmen outrightly rejected the cheques presented to them.
“This is the same Ibas who not long ago claimed he uncovered thousands of ghost workers, thereby reducing the state’s wage bill. If that claim was genuine, why then is he attempting to strip the LGAs of a staggering ₦23 billion? Rivers people are not fools—someone is clearly being deceived here”
The group said it is shameful that instead of consolidating the peace restored to Rivers by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Admiral Ibas has chosen to exploit the situation, abusing Mr. President’s goodwill while “dragging our state toward bankruptcy and a looming economic collapse”
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The group expressed outrage over the delay in payment of salaries since Ibas came on board, lamenting that August salary could be worse.
“Our Advocates are equally disturbed that salaries are consistently delayed under Ibas’s watch, and we have it on good authority that August salaries may face even longer delays due to his reckless financial maneuvers. He is acting with desperation because he knows his time is short.
“We therefore demand that the EFCC, ICPC, and all relevant security and anti-graft agencies immediately open a full-scale investigation into these gross financial abuses. Furthermore, we are preparing petitions to international partners and foreign governments, calling for travel bans and restrictions on Admiral Ibas.
“The Niger Delta Advocates for Good Governance cannot and will not sit idly by while the future of Rivers people is mortgaged by one man’s greed. Rivers belong to all of us, and we will resist this looting with every lawful means until accountability is restored”, the group insisted.
