The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee over-sighting Rivers has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Sole Administration of the state, Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (Rtd) to submit breakdown of major items in the N1.48 trillion 2025 budget.
The committee’s chairman, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo) issued the ultimatum at the budget defence session in Abuja on Monday.
Ihonvbere said the committee had gone through the budget as presented by the sole administrator and had raised several issues.
He demanded that the administrator should submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which is a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
Ihonvbere who is the House Leader, queried the allocation of N24 billion for CCTV cameras to be installed in the state government house, demanding for the breakdown.
He also queried the allocation of N30 billion for the purchase of gun boats and N23 billion earmarked for contingency reserves, requesting for justification of the sum.
The chairman said the committee also observed and questioned the allocation of state funds to existing federal projects 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 for 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.
Ibas who was 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 him, the budget is a reflection of the interest of Rivers people as it was designed in line with needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies.
Nweke said Rivers had a lot of peculiarities noting that the N30 billion earmarked for gun boats was to support security agencies in their fight against insecurity on the waterways.
He also said 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 N24 billion earmarked for CCTV in the State Government House, Nweke said the office of the Governor is that of honour, saying that there was need to ensure modern technology security surveillance among others.
He said the additional documents required by the committee will be made available to them to enable easy legislative process.
