Group Accuses Ibas Of Siphoning Local Government Funds
• Alleges N23 billion has been frittered away
By PHC Telegraph
Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas…in the eye of a storm
A group of advocates who want good governance in the Niger Delta has accused the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok- Ete Ibas of allegedly snatching no less than N23 billion from the 23 local government councils.
A breakdown of the figure indicates that every local government in the State was purportedly directed to surrender the sum of one billion naira from funds accruing to them.
The group, Niger Delta Advocates For Good Governance on Wednesday in a statement signed by its spokesman, Chief Honest Nwenenda, said it had stumbled on detailed information which suggests that underhand transactions are allegedly taking place within the State’s administrative circles.
Quoting unnamed sources reportedly operating within Government House, the statement said, “It has become necessary to once again alert the people of Rivers State and the entire Niger Delta to the dangerous financial mismanagement currently being perpetrated by Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), the sole administrator of Rivers State.”
It said it had “credible information” from “reliable sources within Government House” which show funds were allegedly deducted at least twice from local councils between the months of July and September 9, this year.
The group urged the EFCC and the ICPC as well as other anti graft agencies to order an investigation in order to verify its claim.
As it put it, “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.”
So far, there has been no reaction from the Ibas administration.
Below is the full statement issued by the Advocates:
Press Statement by Chief Honest Nwenenda Woke, Spokesman, Niger Delta Advocates for Good Governance
“It has become necessary to once again alert the people of Rivers State and the entire Niger Delta to the dangerous financial mismanagement currently being perpetrated by Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), the sole administrator of Rivers State.
“Our Advocates have 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.
“It is shameful that instead of consolidating the peace painstakingly 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.
“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 belongs to all of us, and we will resist this looting with every lawful means until accountability is restored.”
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