Rivers Assembly orders arrest of PAMO varsity VC

The Rivers State House of Assembly has issued a warrant of arrest for PAMO University of Medical Sciences Vice Chancellor, Professor Smith I. Jaja, due to his persistent refusal to testify before the House committee. The committee is investigating the allocation of scholarship funds to the institution. During its 53rd legislative sitting on Friday, the Assembly's ad hoc committee, led by Deputy Leader Dumle Maol, invited the Vice Chancellor multiple times to clarify the usage of funds transferred under the scholarship scheme.

PAMO University received over N29 billion from the Rivers State Government under the scholarship program, a sum that does not align with the institution's student enrollment figures. The Assembly has requested the Rivers State Government to establish a funds recovery committee to uncover and return the unaccounted funds to the state's Consolidated Revenue Account.

Speaker Martin Chike Amaewhule expressed concerns over inconsistencies in the scholarship agreement documentation, revealing that only around N5 billion of the nearly N29 billion allocated to PAMO University has been utilized according to the Assembly's assessment.