Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), the immediate past Rivers State Administrator, arrived in Aso Rock on Wednesday and was greeted by President Bola Tinubu, along with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede.
Ibas, who resigned from the Rivers administration on September 17 after six months in office, arrived at the State House at 6 p.m. and was led into the meeting by Edun and Olukoyede.
Wednesday’s meeting comes three days after the former sole administrator rebuffed calls from the Rivers State House of Assembly to investigate spending during his six-month tenure.
Edun arrived at the Villa on Wednesday evening. However, he returned later with a file.
Details of the meeting were not made public at the time of reporting this report, but one source close to the president stated that Ibas’ appearance is related to his six-month tenure in the oil-rich state.
When contacted for comment, Hector Igbikiowubo, media adviser to the former Rivers State Administrator, stated that he was unaware of the meeting.
However, Igbikiowubo vowed to find out and get back to our correspondent.
Ibas says ‘I’ve achieved Tinubu’s mandate on Rivers’
Rivers: Ibas kicks as Assembly moves to probe six-month spending
But he had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report on Wednesday night.
Ibas stepped down as governor of the oil-rich state on September 17, following the end of the six-month emergency rule, when President Bola Tinubu directed the suspended state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and state House of Assembly members to return to office the previous Thursday.
The Rivers State House of Assembly, presided over by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, stated at its first plenary session following the end of emergency rule that it will investigate state expenditure during the six-month period of emergency rule.
The House had resolved “to explore the process of knowing what transpired during the emergency rule with regard to spending from the consolidated revenue fund for the award of contracts and other expenditure.”
Findings revealed that Rivers State received at least N254.37bn from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between March and August 2025 under Ibas’ tenure.
This is based on an analysis of FAAC data from the National Bureau of Statistics and other sources.
While the NBS has released official breakdowns up to June, the figures for July and August were collated from documents presented at FAAC meetings obtained and reviewed by Chronicle NG.
The NBS data showed that Rivers received N44.66bn in March, N44.42bn in April, N42.80bn in May, and N42.30bn in June.
According to the documents reviewed, the state received around N38.42 billion in July and N41.76 billion in August.
These raised total net allocations for the six months to N254.37 billion, with a monthly average of N42.40 billion.
