Rivers lawmakers seek arrest of PAMO vice-chancellor over scholarship funds

The Rivers State House of Assembly has ordered the arrest of the vice-chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, after he failed to appear before a committee investigating scholarship funds paid to the institution by the state government. The resolution was reached during Friday’s plenary, presided over by Speaker Martin Amaewhule. A statement by the Speaker’s media aide, Martins Wachukwu, said the order followed a recommendation from the ad hoc committee examining the disbursements.

The committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Dumle Maol, had invited the vice-chancellor several times to explain how funds provided under the scholarship scheme were spent. The House had previously extended the deadline for his appearance to Thursday, September 24, 2026, but he did not attend. According to the committee report, PAMO University received more than N29bn from the Rivers government since 2017.

The report said there was no corresponding student enrolment to account for the payments. The Assembly did not provide further details of the alleged discrepancy. Amaewhule said documents submitted by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education and the Office of the Accountant-General did not agree.

He said the records indicated that, of the more than N29bn released, only about N5bn had been utilised. The House urged the state government to establish a committee to recover all unaccounted funds held by the university and pay them into the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account. It also removed N6bn allocated to PAMO from the state’s N1.84tn 2026 budget before presenting 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 Assembly said its resolution was made under its constitutional authority and that no individual was above the institution.