Group Captain Eyepeiyah John Ebiye was governor of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 from August 1998 to May 1999 during the transitional regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar

Abdulsalami Abubakar

General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar is a Nigerian general who was President of Nigeria from June 9, 1998 until May 29, 1999. He succeeded Sani Abacha upon Abacha's death. It was during Abubakar's leadership that Nigeria adopted its new constitution on May 5, 1999, which provided for multiparty...

, handing over to the elected civilian Governor Victor Attah

Victor Attah

Obong Victor Bassey Attah was governor of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the ruling People's Democratic Party .-Background:...

 at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic

Nigerian Fourth Republic

The Fourth Republic is the republican government of Nigeria. Since 1999 it has governed the country according to the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Second Republic, which was in place between 1979 and 1983 and suffers many of the same problems, such as multiple...

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As governor, facing shortage of funds and demands to pay minimum wages to all state employees, Ebiye dropped funding for the state-owned newspaper The Pioneer.
In an open meeting in September 1998 he was told that police were extorting money from commercial motorcyclists, and taking them to the police station until they paid up. Ebiye told them to contact him directly through a special complaints phone.
After handing over to civilian rule, he was required to retire, as were all previous military administrators, in June 1999.