Ibas Ibok-Ete, who left last week as Rivers state Administrator, has dismissed the ongoing probe of his six months administration by the Rivers state House of Assembly. The retired Naval officer said the effort by the state lawmakers will end in futility, as doing so will mean probing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly.
The retired military office spoke on Sunday barely one week after the Assembly disclosed its plan to investigate his tenure as the state Administrator.
Ibas departed his position on September 17, 2025 after President Tinubu lifted the suspension on Governor Siminalaye Fubara, his Deputy and the state lawmakers, making the end of Emergency Rule in the oil rich state.
Reacting to his probe by the Assembly, the Senior Special Adviser on Media, to the former Administrator Hector Igbikiowubu, said yesterday that there’s nothing to probe, and that the lawmakers are chasing shadows by trying to investigate how he managed the funds the state received from the Federation Account following his appointment by the president.
The administration, according to checks received over N254 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between March and August 2025, figures from FAAC and National Bureau of Statistics indicate.
He, however, described the lawmakers’ resolve as commentary, adding that the attempt to probe the former administrator was tantamount to probing the President, who appointed him, as well as the National Assembly, which supervised the activities of Ibas as the state administrator, as he then was.
Igbikiowubu, however wished the lawmakers well in their endeavors describing the ongoing exercise as “a fool’s errand.”
He said, “When you say they were going to probe the tenure of the administrator, was it the Assembly that appointed the administrator?
“You see, the point to note is that commentary is free. You can’t stop people from running commentary. The House of Assembly has been on break for a very long time, and you will appreciate that they have not been able to discharge their functions for such a long time,” Igbikiowubu told The PUNCH.
“Now that they have resumed, they have to make an effort to carry out their functions. So, it will seem their right to probe what has gone wrong in the state. Nobody can stop the lawmakers from carrying out a probe of what they perceive to be their functions within the state.
“But like I asked earlier, were they the ones that appointed the administrator? So, if you didn’t appoint the administrator, it goes to reason that you have certain limitations. When you also realise that the administrator was appointed by the President, it goes without reason that the administrator acted for and on behalf of the President.”
He added, “When you also reason that the administrator was supervised by the National Assembly, it goes without reason that when you decide to probe the administrator, you’re invariably saying that you will be probing the administrator and the National Assembly.
“So, I wish them good luck with their plan and their probe. But you and I know that such an enterprise amounts to a fool’s errand.”
Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, had during its first plenary session last week passed a resolution stating its readiness to investigate the state expenditure during the six months of emergency rule under Ibas.
This is to “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,” the Speaker said.
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