Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd.), the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, has approved the appointment of administrators for all 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state.
This development comes less than 24 hours after the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt reportedly issued an order restraining him from making such appointments.
The interim order was given on Tuesday by Justice Adam Muhammed in suit number FHC/PH/CS/46/2025, filed by the PILEX Centre for Civic Education Initiative, led by Courage Msirimovu, against Ibas in his official capacity.
In spite of the court’s directive, Ibas proceeded to make the appointments and also reinstated various boards of agencies, commissions, and parastatals that had earlier been suspended.
The announcement was contained in a Special Government Announcement released on Wednesday morning by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Ibibia Worika.
The statement read, “His Excellency The Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas CFR, has approved the appointments of administrators for the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
“He has also approved the reconstitution of some boards of agencies, commissions, and parastatals, earlier suspended.
“All appointments take effect from Monday, the 7th of April 2025.”
Though the list of the new appointees was not made public, the government indicated the appointments are effective immediately.
Last week, Ibas had suspended all heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the state. In a separate move, he also cancelled all ongoing procurement and tender processes undertaken by MDAs, citing the absence of an appropriation law and the recent Supreme Court judgment as justification.
According to an earlier statement from the SSG, the sole administrator directed all affected MDAs to refund fees collected for those tender processes to the respective contractors.
