The Rivers State House of Assembly has ordered the arrest of the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Professor Smith Jaja, over his repeated failure to appear before a legislative committee probing more than ₦29 billion in scholarship funds released to the institution by the state government.
The resolution was adopted on Friday during the Assembly’s 53rd legislative sitting after lawmakers considered the report of an ad hoc committee investigating the funds.
The committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Dumle Maol, had invited the Vice-Chancellor on multiple occasions to explain how the money was utilised since 2017, but he failed to honour the summons.
According to the committee’s findings, PAMO University received over ₦29 billion from the Rivers State Government under the scholarship scheme for indigenes studying medicine.
However, the amount did not correspond with student enrolment figures. Documents from the Ministries of Finance and Education, as well as the Office of the Accountant-General, contained conflicting records, with lawmakers assessing that only about ₦5 billion of the total sum appeared to have been accounted for.
Speaker Martin Amaewhule described the scholarship programme as well-intentioned but poorly implemented.
He stressed that the Assembly would exercise its full constitutional oversight powers, noting that no individual or institution is above the legislature.
In addition to the arrest warrant, the House urged the Rivers State Government to set up a recovery committee to identify and retrieve any unaccounted funds held by the university and return them to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
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