The Rivers State House of Assembly has officially ordered the issuance of an arrest warrant for the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Professor Smith I. Jaja. The directive follows his repeated failure to appear before an Ad-hoc Committee investigating the management and disbursement of state scholarship funds allocated to the institution.
Discrepancies in Student Enrollment and Funds
The resolution was adopted on Friday during the Assembly’s 53rd legislative sitting, following a comprehensive report presented by the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee and Deputy Leader of the House, Hon. Dumle Maol.
According to the committee’s findings, PAMO University received more than ₦29 billion from the Rivers State Government under the scholarship scheme. However, the legislative panel noted severe discrepancies, alleging that the massive financial disbursements were not justified by a corresponding number of student enrollments.
Calls for a Funds Recovery Committee
In addition to the arrest warrant, the House has strongly urged the Rivers State Government to establish a dedicated funds recovery committee. This committee would be tasked with identifying and reclaiming all unaccounted funds currently in the possession of the university and returning the money directly to the state’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
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Conflicting Financial Records
Commenting on the development, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule, noted that while the state government originally meant well in establishing the partnership and scholarship agreement, its actual execution has been deeply flawed.
Amaewhule expressed strong disapproval over the conflicting financial records submitted by key government agencies. Documents provided by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Office of the Accountant-General contained significant variances. Based on the Assembly’s assessment of these records, a simple deduction indicated that only about ₦5 billion of the more than ₦29 billion released to PAMO University appeared to have been properly utilized.
Reaffirming the parliament’s mandate, Speaker Amaewhule maintained that the legislature remains steadfast in its constitutional duty to ensure accountability, stressing that no individual or institution is larger than the House.
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