Rivers Crisis: Stanley-Uwom Sues to Cut Off Ibas’ LG Funding

LG Funding:

The controversial leadership of Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd.) in Rivers State has come under legal fire, as a former Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Marshall Stanley-Uwom, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to stop him from spending local government funds.

Ibas, who is currently acting as the sole administrator of Rivers State, is being challenged over his appointment of unelected officials to manage the state’s 23 local government councils—a move Stanley-Uwom describes as unconstitutional and illegal.

In a suit filed on April 24 and marked FHC/ABJ/CS/797/2025, Stanley-Uwom asked the court to stop the Federal Government from disbursing any funds to Rivers State local governments under Ibas’ supervision.

He argued that Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution only allows democratically elected local government councils to receive and manage public funds. Any system of unelected caretakers, he said, goes against the law.

“Ibas has no right to appoint or fund caretaker committees,” Stanley-Uwom stated in court papers. “Local government councils must be elected. That is what the Constitution says, and that is what the Supreme Court has confirmed.”

Ibas was appointed to oversee the state following a controversial state of emergency declaration after tensions in Rivers’ political space. But the plaintiff now argues that the emergency proclamation itself is illegal, as it was not backed by the National Assembly through a two-thirds vote, as required by Section 305(6)(b) of the Constitution.

In addition to President Bola Tinubu, the suit also lists top federal officials and institutions—including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant-General, and the Federation Account Allocation Committee—as co-defendants for allegedly releasing funds to Ibas’ unelected appointees.

Stanley-Uwom is also challenging Ibas’ removal of members of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, calling it another illegal overreach by the sole administrator.

“Ibas is running a one-man show with no legal backing,” he said. “The people of Rivers State deserve their elected leaders, not handpicked caretakers.”