SERAP says Rivers State’s emergency-rule account books show more than ₦302 billion moved in six months, with huge August transfers and a ₦28 billion CCTV mystery now at the centre of a court showdown.
PORT HARCOURT — Rivers State’s emergency-rule finances have exploded into a fresh political scandal.
Court papers now cited by SERAP show that more than ₦302 billion moved through the state’s books in just six months under former sole administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), throwing a harsh light on how the state was run during one of its most controversial periods.
The figure is staggering. According to the filing, Rivers State received ₦253.48 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between March and August 2025. Another ₦44.87 billion came in from other sources. That took total inflows to about ₦298.35 billion. Yet the same records, SERAP says, show spending of more than ₦302.35 billion over the same stretch.
That is the kind of number that does not just raise eyebrows. It raises alarms.
At the centre of the fight is a Freedom of Information suit filed at the High Court in Port Harcourt, where SERAP is demanding full transparency over the emergency-rule period. The case is before Justice S.H. Aprioku and remains active, with the next hearing fixed for May 19, 2026.
The state’s counter-affidavit, dated March 10, 2026, has only deepened the intrigue.
It says the government has now compiled and made available the requested information, attaching bank statements and capital pages of the Government House estimate. It also insists that it does not contest the right of citizens and watchdog groups to seek information under the Freedom of Information Act.
But SERAP is clearly not ready to close the file.
The group says its preliminary reading of the exhibits shows a spending pattern that is anything but ordinary. According to its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the papers show heavy transfers to government entities. They also reveal payments to individuals. There are repeated movements of money into Government House between March and August 2025.
And the sums are eye-watering.
SERAP says the records show multiple payments to Government House ranging from ₦1.8 million to ₦4.27 billion. Among the figures listed were ₦61.9 million, ₦122 million, ₦170 million, ₦389 million, ₦750 million, ₦850 million and ₦900 million, with the ₦900 million transfers appearing repeatedly. The biggest single transfer recorded, SERAP says, was the ₦4.27 billion payment in August.
August, in fact, appears to be the month that keeps pulling attention.
SERAP says more than ₦106 billion was disbursed to ministries, departments and agencies in that one month alone. Across the full six-month period, it says over ₦163.44 billion went to MDAs, while salaries, pensions and overheads gulped more than ₦112.41 billion.
Then came the debt burden.
The records, according to SERAP, show more than ₦26.01 billion used for loan servicing and another ₦491.59 million spent on bank charges. That brings the combined total for those items to about ₦26.50 billion.
For a state already under political strain, the optics are grim.
The documents also appear to expose a string of project questions. SERAP says over ₦2.5 billion was released for the construction of Government House quarters, but only about ₦1.1 billion is reflected in the exhibits as actual spending. It says the capital pages show a revised allocation of ₦2.67 billion for office building repairs, yet only about ₦404 million appears to have been spent.
There is also the matter of the canteen and kitchen equipment vote.
According to SERAP, ₦350 million was stated as allocated for that item. However, the exhibits do not clearly show how much was actually released. The group also says more than ₦463 million was spent on rehabilitation projects. Another project, initially budgeted at ₦800 million, appears to have risen to ₦1.56 billion.
That is exactly the sort of movement that investigators and judges will now be forced to pick apart line by line.
One of the most explosive claims concerns a ₦28 billion CCTV project for the State House.
The counter-affidavit, as quoted in the report, says no expenditure was incurred on the project and therefore no spending document can be produced. That is a remarkable admission in a file meant to show compliance and openness. If no money was spent, critics will ask why such a massive sum was approved in the first place.
SERAP is treating the filing as a partial victory, not the end of the battle.
Oluwadare says the organisation is studying the documents carefully. They are examining the spending project by project. The organisation will decide whether the government has fully complied with its demand. Alternatively, they might need a fresh request. That suggests SERAP believes the paper trail may still conceal more than it reveals.
The group’s suit rests on the constitutional right to access information and the Freedom of Information Act. In plain terms, it is asking whether Rivers citizens are entitled to know exactly how their money was handled during the emergency-rule period.
That is no small question.
The emergency administration was imposed after Rivers’ political crisis paralysed governance and triggered federal intervention. It was always going to face questions about power, legality and control. Now it faces a far more dangerous one: whether the financial management of the state during that period can survive public scrutiny.
For now, the numbers are on the page. The arguments are in court. And the political damage may only just be beginning.
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