Anabs Sara-Igbe, the National Coordinator of the South-South Leadership Forum, claimed in an interview with Channels Television that the dispute between Wike and Gov. Fubara is more about money than political structures for future elections, contrary to Wike’s assertions. This comes in the wake of the feud between the two and the Rivers State crisis. He disclosed that the state’s internally generated income (IGR) dropped to N6 billion after Wike left office, from over N10 billion during his tenure as governor.
Anabs Sara-Igbe narrated how the governor, who had previously served as the state’s Accountant General, sought answers to the abrupt decrease in revenue. Anabs Sara-Igbe suggested that the governor’s proactive approach to seeking advice to rectify the revenue decline resulted in tensions within the government.
According to him, “Wike has come to tell the world that he’s fighting Sim because Sim wants to take his structure, and what is the structure six months into the election, and after the election, what has structure got to do? We are not close to an election, so what has structure got to do? But I’ll tell you the type of structure he’s talking about. Now, before Wike left government, the state (Rivers state) was getting an IGR of over N10 billion; when he left, the IGR came down to N6 billion, and the governor, who was accountant general when he was there, came to ask question, why is it coming down? And in the process, he engaged somebody who has passed through that process to please look at the books for me, why is my revenue coming down so that I can advise. Then the commissioner of finance got to Wike, and Wike got angry. ”
