With Rivers State set to exit six months of emergency rule on September 18, Sole Administrator Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas (rtd.) has rolled out transition activities, including a state-wide thanksgiving service and reforms to the pension system.
The interdenominational thanksgiving, billed for Sunday at the Ecumenical Centre, Port Harcourt, will bring together government officials, security chiefs, local government leaders, traditional rulers, business executives, and other stakeholders. According to Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Ibibia Lucky Worika, the service is aimed at marking the close of Ibas’s tenure and celebrating the return of democratic governance.
Despite being days away from leaving office, Ibas has also pushed through key reforms. On Friday, he inaugurated a newly reconstituted Rivers State Pensions Board, tasked with fixing a system that has left retirees unpaid for years. Speaking at Government House, he said the move was meant to restore dignity to pensioners who “gave their best years to building Rivers State.”
The retired naval chief charged the board to deliver without excuses, stressing that pensioners had endured hardship for too long. He said the ongoing re-verification of beneficiaries had already uncovered major flaws in the old system and expressed confidence that the new team would restore transparency and trust.
Ibas also used the occasion to highlight what he described as the fulfillment of the mandate given to him by President Bola Tinubu in March, when he was appointed sole administrator under emergency rule. That mandate, he said, was to stabilize Rivers, rebuild its institutions, and prepare the ground for the return of elected leadership.
Citing the recently concluded local government elections, which ushered in new chairmen and councils, Ibas praised the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission for what he called a fair and peaceful exercise. “For once, people were able to vote freely without intimidation,” he noted, adding that the process had been commended both within and outside the state.
