Rivers State governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has explained that the State Executive Council revoked a ₦134 billion contract for secretariat renovation awarded by the state’s former sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (rtd), because it lacked due process.
The contract was awarded during the six-month State of Emergency Rule to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) for the renovation, retrofitting, and furnishing of the state Secretariat Complex.
The Council, during a meeting presided over by Governor Fubara on Thursday, also ordered the immediate refund of the ₦20 billion mobilisation fee earlier paid to the contractor by the former sole administrator of the state.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Works, Dr. Austin Ezekiel-Hart, said the contract was hastily awarded without due process.
He disclosed that the Council also approved the revalidation of the bidding process for four major projects previously advertised but later cancelled by the administration.
Ezekiel-Hart said fresh bidding will be advertised in national dailies for competent and experienced contractors to prequalify and submit both technical and commercial bids for the four projects.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Education, Dr. Azibaolanari Uzoma-Nwogu, said the Council approved the establishment of a committee to develop a proposal for establishing Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres and ICT laboratories across the three senatorial districts.
She noted that the initiative aligns with a directive by the Federal Government that, from 2026, all examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) will be computer-based.
The six-member committee, to be chaired by the state deputy governor, Professor Ngozi Odu, will assess and recommend suitable locations for the construction of CBT centres across the state.
There have been indications that Governor Fubara may be on a collision course with Vice Admiral Ibas over the latter’s handling of the monthly allocations to Rivers State within the six months that he held sway as the sole administrator.
According to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the state, under the leadership of Vice Admiral Ibas (rtd), received a total sum of ₦401.9 billion when he was in charge.
The payments were reportedly made to the oil-rich state by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
In addition, Ibas, on assumption of office, reportedly received the sum of ₦36.6 billion from the Federal Government as local government allocations for two months.
The funds represented allocations for January and February 2025 for the 23 local government areas in the state, but which was not released to Governor Fubara before he was suspended from office.
A breakdown revealed that the state government, under Ibas, received the following amounts from March to August, 2025:
Statistics (according to the Office of the AGF and the NBS) showed that, in March, the state government received ₦44.6 billion, while local government areas got ₦18.5 billion;
The allocation for April stood at ₦44.4 billion for the state and ₦19.4 billion for local governments, while the disbursement to the two tiers of government, in May, was ₦42.7 billion and ₦16 billion, respectively.
In June, the state government received ₦42.3 billion, while the local government areas got ₦18.8 billion; for the month of July, ₦39 billion and ₦18.8 billion were allocated to the state and local government areas, respectively.
Rivers State government, under Vice Admiral Ibas, reportedly received ₦41.6 billion, while the local government areas in the state got ₦19.2 billion in August.
The state House of Assembly, on its reinstatement after the expiration of the State of Emergency, had questioned the spending of Ibas during the six-month period.
However, Ibas had then kicked against a probe of the expenditure of his administration, as he reportedly said the lawmakers lacked the power to probe him as they were not the ones that appointed him as a sole administrator.
