Rivers State Assembly issues arrest warrant for PAMO University VC

The Rivers State House of Assembly has issued an arrest warrant for Professor Smith I. Jaja, the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, following his repeated failure to appear before an ad hoc committee. The committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Dumle Maol, is investigating the utilization of over ₦29 billion released to the university under a state government scholarship scheme.

According to a report presented during the Assembly’s 53rd legislative sitting, there are significant discrepancies in the financial records provided by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Office of the Accountant-General. Speaker Martin Chike Amaewhule noted that while the scholarship agreement was intended to benefit students, the documents submitted are inconsistent. Preliminary assessments by the Assembly suggest that only approximately ₦5 billion of the ₦29 billion released appears to have been utilized, leaving a discrepancy of roughly ₦24 billion.

The Assembly has called on the Rivers State Government to establish a funds recovery committee to retrieve any unaccounted funds from the university and return them to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account. The probe also seeks to reconcile the number of students actually sponsored against the total expenditure recorded.