Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd), has revealed that some officials of the suspended administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara deliberately withheld key financial information that complicated planning for a transparent budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
Ibas, who disclosed this yesterday during his appearance before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Rivers State Oversight for the defence of the proposed N1.48 trillion budget, raised concerns that expenditures by the suspended administration were understated.
President Bola Tinubu had, last month, transmitted a budget proposal of N1.48 trillion for the Rivers State Government to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
The President said that the budget proposal became necessary because of the nullification of the 2025 budget of the state by the Supreme Court and the fact that the state is currently under emergency rule.
The President said that N324 billion of the amount would be expended on infrastructure, N166 billion on health, N75.6 billion on education and N31.4 billion on agriculture.
During the budget defence, Ibas explained that the uncooperative stance of the officials hindered a full accounting of funds already expended by the suspended administration during the first quarter of 2025 prior to the declaration of a state of emergency in the state by President Tinubu.
Ibas, however, stressed that the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly was revised to integrate available expenditure information to ratify the first quarter spending in a lawful and transparent structure.
He said: “We are optimistic that implementing the 2025 budget proposal will deliver great socio-economic benefits for the people of River State. While the records available to me on the 2024 budget and its actual performance remain a source of concern, a quick review of the official records for the 2024 budget shows that the total revenue of the River State Government was N1.04 trillion, compared to a target of N800.39 billion.
“This represents N250 billion, or 31.6 per cent above the budget target. On the expenditure side, the official performance report shows that the total expenditure was N740.74 billion, which was N52.7 billion, or 6.7 per cent less than the spending target. It is my well-considered opinion that the expenditures are understated.
“The total revenue projected for the 2025 fiscal year is N1.4 trillion.”
As of May 2025, total revenue inflows were N597.14 billion, which is only about four per cent less than our projection. The total expenditure planned for 2025 is N1.48 trillion. The proposed 2025 budget was particularly designed to account for unregularised expenditures already undertaken during the first quarter of the fiscal year by the suspended administration, before the state of emergency declaration by President Bola Tinubu.”
