Ibas, group fight dirty over vehicles retrieval from suspended deputy gov

Ibas

The Rivers State Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), and a civic group, Democracy Watch Nigeria, were on Thursday engaged in a war of words over the controversial retrieval of three official vehicles from the residence of the suspended Deputy Governor, Prof. Ngozi Odu.

The clash followed reports that military personnel, allegedly naval operatives acting under the instruction of the Sole Administrator, stormed Odu’s Port Harcourt residence and carted away two Toyota Hilux vans and a Toyota Hiace bus.

Democracy Watch Nigeria condemned the action as “a disturbing show of force,” accusing Ibas of undermining democratic norms and using state power to intimidate political opponents.

“In a disturbing show of force, the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), on Friday, April 25, ordered naval personnel to storm the official residence of the Deputy Governor of Rivers State and forcibly remove three vehicles,” the group’s spokesperson, Elder Vincent Wopara, said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt.

“The naval officers, acting on the direct instruction of the Sole Administrator, carried out the operation in a commando-style raid. This development marks a new low in the ongoing disregard for due process and democratic norms under the current administration.”

Wopara said the act was not only provocative but intended to humiliate the office of the Deputy Governor, “which remains a constitutionally recognised institution.”

He added, “We call on well-meaning Nigerians, civil society organisations, and the international community to take note of this growing trend of militarisation and impunity in Rivers State.”

But in a swift rebuttal on Thursday, Ibas described the outcry as a calculated attempt to politicise a routine administrative action.

Through a statement by his Senior Special Adviser on Media, Hector Igbikiowubo, the Sole Administrator insisted the recovery of the vehicles was to ensure that government property was not misused or left vulnerable.