The Rivers State House of Assembly has resolved to issue a warrant of arrest for the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), Port Harcourt, Prof. Smith Jaja, following his failure to appear before an ad hoc committee investigating billions of naira in scholarship funds released to the institution by the Rivers State Government.
The resolution was reached during the Assembly’s 53rd legislative sitting on Friday, September 25, 2026, after lawmakers considered the report of the committee chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Dumle Maol. According to the Assembly, the committee had invited the Vice-Chancellor several times to explain how funds provided under the state’s scholarship scheme had been utilised.
The Assembly said its investigation covers funds released to PAMO University under the scholarship arrangement from 2017. It alleged, based on the committee’s report, that the university received more than ₦29 billion from the state government, while raising questions about the relationship between the funds released and student enrolment figures.
The lawmakers also urged the Rivers State Government to establish a committee to recover what the Assembly described as unaccounted funds allegedly in the possession of PAMO University and remit any recovered money to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
According to a statement issued by Martins Wachukwu, Special Assistant on Media to the Speaker, the Assembly’s resolution followed the recommendation of the ad hoc committee after the Vice-Chancellor failed to honour its invitations.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule, said the documents submitted by the Rivers State Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Office of the Accountant-General contained discrepancies. He further said that, based on the records before the Assembly, more than ₦29 billion had been released to PAMO University while only about ₦5 billion was shown as utilised. These are assertions contained in the Assembly’s report and have not been established by a court judgment.
The dispute has been developing for several weeks. On September 3, the Assembly removed a ₦6 billion allocation for PAMO University from the Rivers State Government’s 2026 budget before the budget was presented for assent. The lawmakers subsequently established the ad hoc committee to investigate funds disbursed to the university since 2017.
The university’s position has, however, differed from that of the Assembly. Chukwuma Chinwo, counsel to PAMO University, previously argued that the Assembly lacked jurisdiction to compel the Vice-Chancellor to appear before the committee because the funds in question were scholarship payments rather than funds appropriated directly to the university.
Chinwo maintained that the university had been providing services to Rivers State students under the scholarship arrangement and said the institution had advised its Vice-Chancellor not to appear before the committee on the grounds that doing so could establish what the lawyer considered an inappropriate legal precedent.
The Assembly’s ad hoc committee rejected that position, maintaining that Sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution empowered the legislature to investigate how public funds had been used. The committee chairman, Dumle Maol, said records supplied by the state Ministry of Finance indicated that PAMO University had received more than ₦28 billion from the state since 2017, including funds received in 2026.
The disagreement has also moved into the courts. The Guardian reported that the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt declined an application for an interim order sought against the Assembly by PAMO University. The court subsequently adjourned a fundamental-rights case involving the university and its Vice-Chancellor to September 29, 2026.
The latest Assembly resolution therefore comes amid an unresolved dispute over the legislature’s investigative powers, the handling of scholarship funds and the accountability obligations attached to public funding of students in a private university.
For the education sector, the dispute has implications beyond the immediate disagreement between the Assembly and PAMO University, particularly because the scholarship arrangement concerns the sponsorship of Rivers State students in medical education. The central issues now include how publicly funded scholarships are accounted for, how student enrolment is reconciled with government payments, and the respective responsibilities of government and institutions participating in such schemes.
The Assembly has directed attention to recovering funds it considers unaccounted for, while PAMO University’s legal position challenges the basis upon which the Vice-Chancellor has been summoned. With the matter also before the courts, further developments are expected to clarify the legal and financial issues surrounding the scholarship arrangement.
Until those issues are determined through the appropriate legal and investigative processes, the allegations concerning the handling of the funds remain claims advanced by the Rivers State House of Assembly and should not be treated as established findings of wrongdoing against the university or its officials.
