House C’ttee Grills Rivers over N1.48tn Budget, Demands Full Disclosure In 48-hrs

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of Rivers State, led by House Leader, Hon. Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, CON, has raised concerns over the 2025 Appropriation Bill submitted by the Rivers State Government, questioning several high-value expenditure items and demanding full disclosure within 48 hours.

According to a statement by the Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon. Akin Rotimi Jr, the Committee, sitting in Abuja, engaged the Rivers State delegation in a budget defence session as part of its oversight function.

The statement stated that Ihonvbere opened the session by emphasising the need for transparency, accountability, and sustainable development in the state.

He noted that the Committee had conducted a detailed review of the N1.48 trillion budget proposal and found several red flags that warranted further explanation.

Among the contentious items in the budget were N24 billion for CCTV installation at the Rivers State Government House, N30 billion for the procurement of gunboats, N23 billion set aside under “contingency” without detailed explanation.

The Committee also queried the legality and rationale behind Rivers State funding certain projects constitutionally under the federal government’s jurisdiction, reportedly without any prior agreement or reimbursement framework.

Ihonvbere while insisting that such expenditures lacked legal grounding and could undermine fiscal discipline, issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Rivers State Government to submit several key documents and clarifications.

The documents included a detailed justification for the queried expenditure items, The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which should precede any budget proposal, Monthly records of Federal Allocations and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from January to June 2025, with emphasis on the last three months.

Full disclosure on the management of Local Government funds, including relevant legal and administrative structures, Evidence of financial transfers to the 23 Local Government Areas, and All documents related to the Airforce Base Agreement mentioned during the session.