The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Rivers State has given the state’s Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), a 48-hour ultimatum to submit a detailed breakdown of key allocations in the proposed 2025 budget, including a controversial N24 billion earmarked for CCTV installation in the Government House.
Chairman of the committee and House Majority Leader, Rep. Julius Ihonvbere (APC, Edo), issued the directive on Monday during a budget defence session in Abuja.
He expressed concern over several line items in the N1.48 trillion Appropriation Bill.
He said that the committee had gone through the budget as presented by the sole administrator and had raised several issues.
He directed the administrator to submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which he said is a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
Ihonvbere specifically queried the allocation of N24 billion for CCTV cameras to be installed in the state government house, demanding the breakdown.
He also queried the allocation of N30 billion for the purchase of gun boats and N23 billion earmarked for contingency reserves, requesting justification of the sum.
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 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 to him, the budget is a reflection of the interest of Rivers people, saying it was 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 of N24 billion earmarked for CCTV in the state government house, Nweke said that the office of the Governor is that of honour, saying that there was a 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.
