- Says Ibas dragged Rivers towards bankruptcy
By Abiola Olawale
With barely a week remaining until the expiration of the six-month state of emergency in Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), the state’s sole administrator, is currently embroiled in an explosive accusation of allegedly orchestrating a massive financial heist amounting to about ₦23 billion.
The allegations were leveled against Ibas by the Niger Delta Advocates for Good Governance (NDAGG).
The NDAGG, a frontline coalition body advocating for ethical governance in the Niger Delta region, issued a scathing statement on September 10, 2025, critizing Ibas’s time in government house as the “largest looting spree in the history of Rivers State.”
According to the group, Ibas has allegedly masterminded the diversion of funds from local government allocations, leaving councils starved of resources and workers at risk of delayed salaries.
The group accused the administrator of allegedly betraying the trust placed in him by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whose intervention in March 2025 imposed the emergency rule to quell political unrest.
In the statement issued by its spokesman, Chief Honest Nwenenda Woke, the NDAGG claimed that in July 2025, Ibas allegedly ordered deductions of more than ₦200 million from each of the 23 Local Government Areas of the State without any form of accountability or clear explanation.
The statement reads in part; “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”.
NDAGG further alleged that the controversy resurfaced on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, during the monthly meeting of the Joint Account Allocation Committee at Government House, during which Ibas reportedly announced another round of deductions exceeding ₦1 billion from each of the 23 Local Government Councils—under the pretext of funding pension payments.
“If that claim was genuine, why then is he attempting to strip the Local Government Areas 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.and President’s goodwill while dragging our state toward bankruptcy.”
