Rivers Assembly orders arrest of PAMO vice-chancellor over scholarship probe

The Rivers State House of Assembly has ordered the arrest of the vice-chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, over his failure to appear before a committee investigating scholarship funds paid to the institution. The order was issued during plenary on Friday, presided over by the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule. The Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Dumle Maol, has been examining disbursements made by the state government to the university since 2017.

According to a statement by the Speaker’s media aide, Martins Wachukwu, the Assembly also asked the Rivers State Government to establish a committee to recover funds in the university’s possession that could not be accounted for and deposit them in the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account. The Assembly said the university had received more than N29bn from the government without corresponding student enrolment, according to the committee’s report. It said the vice-chancellor had declined several invitations to explain how the money provided under the scholarship scheme was spent.

Amaewhule also said documents submitted by the Ministries of Finance and Education and the Office of the Accountant-General did not match. He said the records indicated that, from the more than N29bn released to PAMO, only about N5bn had been used. The Assembly had previously extended the deadline for the vice-chancellor to attend the committee’s hearing.

It also removed N6bn allocated to PAMO from the state’s 2026 budget of N1.84tn before sending the budget to Governor Siminalayi Fubara for assent. PAMO University is owned by former Rivers governor Peter Odili, who is also its pro-chancellor. The supplied report does not include a response from the university or its vice-chancellor to the allegations or the arrest order.