Ibas must account for all Rivers money — Activist, Ann-Kio Briggs

Niger Delta rights activist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has said that the people of Rivers State deserve to know the terms of agreement between Governor Siminilayi Fubara and President Bola Tinubu before the six-month emergency rule ended in the state.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Briggs argued that the people of the state had the right to know what was agreed behind closed doors, warning that silence could erode the governor’s credibility.

“We are the people who have paid the greatest price in all of these things, and to not be aware of the decision which will affect us, and therefore, we can’t gauge the extent to which these decisions will affect us, it becomes very difficult to flow with the politicians,” she said.

She warned that withholding details of the pact was “unacceptable” to people from Rivers State. 

“It’s just an impossible situation where we have found ourselves. We don’t know what the President has insisted on, we don’t know what was agreed upon, and where that leads the people of Rivers State. So, we need to know what was agreed on,” she said. 

Briggs also joined calls for Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), who served as the state’s sole administrator during the emergency period, to account for public funds spent under his watch. 

“The state funds spent during the emergency rule belonged to the people of the state and should be accounted for,” she said. 

Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and members of the state assembly were suspended on March 18, 2025, following the declaration of emergency rule over political instability.  Fubara resumed office on September 17, 2025, after the emergency rule was lifted by President Tinubu.

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