The Rivers State House of Assembly has ordered the arrest of the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, over more than ₦29 billion in scholarship funds disbursed to the institution by the state government since 2017.
The PUNCH reported on Friday, September 25, 2026, that the arrest order followed the vice-chancellor’s failure to honour several invitations from an Ad Hoc Committee investigating the disbursement and utilisation of the funds.
The Assembly reached the resolution during its 53rd legislative sitting on Friday, September 25, 2026, presided over by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, according to a statement by Martins Wachukwu, the Speaker’s Special Assistant on Media.
The statement said the committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Dumle Maol, presented its report to the House, which subsequently resolved to issue a warrant of arrest for the university’s vice-chancellor in line with the committee’s recommendation.
According to The PUNCH, the Assembly had previously extended the deadline for the vice-chancellor to appear before the committee to Thursday, September 24, 2026, after he failed to attend earlier invitations.
The committee’s report, as cited by The PUNCH, said PAMO University received more than ₦29 billion from the Rivers State Government but had no corresponding student enrolment for the funds released.
The report also identified discrepancies among documents presented by the Rivers State Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Office of the Accountant-General, according to the statement cited by the newspaper.
Amaewhule said, based on the records before the House, PAMO University had utilised only about ₦5 billion out of the more than ₦29 billion released by the state government.
The Assembly consequently urged the Rivers State Government to establish a committee to recover all unaccounted funds in PAMO University’s possession and return the money to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account, The PUNCH reported.
The investigation followed the Assembly’s removal of ₦6 billion allocated to PAMO University from the Rivers State 2026 budget of ₦1.84 trillion.
The PUNCH reported that the House subsequently constituted the committee to investigate the use of state funds allocated to the university since 2017.
PAMO University is owned by former Rivers State Governor Dr Peter Odili, who is also the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, according to The PUNCH.
