The House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Rivers has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Sole Administration of the state, Vice Admiral Ibok-Eke Ibas (retd) to submit breakdown of major items in the 2025 N1.48 trillion Appropriation bill.
The Chairman of the committee, Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo) issued the ultimate on Monday at budget defence session in Abuja.
He said that the committee had gone through the budget as presented by the sole administrator and had raised several issues.
He that the administrator should submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, which a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
Ihonvbere who is the Majority Leader of the house, 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 that the committee also observed and questioned the allocation of state funds to existing federal project 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.
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“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.
Ihonvbere commended President Bola Tinubu for his intervention that brought about peace between the suspended Executive and Legislature in the state.
Earlier, Ibas who was represented by the Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy, Mr 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 State people as is was designed in line with needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies.
Nweke said that Rivers had a lot of peculiarities saying that the N30 billion earmarked for gun boats was to support security agencies in their fight against insecurity on the waterways.
He also said that 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 allocation N24 billion earmarked for CCTV in the state government house, Nweke said that office of the Governor is that of honour, saying that there was need to ensure modern technology security surveillance among others.
He said that the additional documents required by the committee will made available to the committee to enable easy legislative process.
