Rivers Assembly, varsity lawyer clash over N28bn funds

File photo: Rivers State House of Assembly

The controversy generated over the N6bn allocated to the PAMO University of Medical Sciences in the 2026 Rivers State budget for scholarships to students of the state origin studying medicine has deepened.

While the state legislature insisted that the PAMO University vice-chancellor must appear before it to explain how funds from the budget disbursed to the school since 2017 were spent, the institution’s lawyer, on the other hand, said he would not allow his client (VC) to appear before the committee.

Recall that the state Assembly on September 3, while passing the over N1.8tn budget submitted by Governor Siminalayi Fubara, rejected N6bn allocated to the PAMO University.

The House alleged that the management of the university, owned by former governor of the state, Dr Peter Odili, who doubles as the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, had not been transparent in the management of the funds allocated to it by the state government since 2017.

After the N6bn was removed from the budget and assented to by the governor, the Assembly, a few days later, constituted a committee chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Dumle Maol, to probe the funds disbursed to the university since 2017.

The Martin Amaewhule-led House then invited the Vice Chancellor of PUMS, the State Accountant General, the commissioner for finance, the commissioner for education and other officials to appear before the committee to explain how the funds appropriated to the university were expended.

The ad hoc committee had fixed Thursday, September 24, as a new date for the vice-chancellor of the university and the state government officials to appear, having failed to appear before it on September 16.

Recall that the committee had threatened to invoke sections of the constitution to issue an arrest warrant if the invitees failed to appear on the said date.

However, speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, lawyer to the university, Chukwuma Chinwo, insisted that the vice-chancellor would not appear before the Assembly, saying the state legislature was going beyond its powers, as it did not appropriate any funds to the university.

Chinwo stated, “There were no funds appropriated to PAMO University. Now, if you give a scholarship to your student, which is quite good, it is like a father who is training his child in the university, and there are students of private sponsorship there.

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“Will the parents now invite PAMO to come and give an account of how the money they gave to their children was spent?

“Did you train them? Were they certified? And that we do every year with the Ministry of Education. Now, these issues are not because PAMO doesn’t have the facts to give, but because of legality and because of not setting the wrong precedent.

“We have advised our clients not to appear before that panel because they don’t have jurisdiction over them in the circumstances. So, that is the position, and if they are trying to invoke power, you must invoke legal power,” the lawyer said.

Reacting to the comments by the university lawyer, the state Assembly ad hoc committee investigating the funds allegedly disbursed to the university insisted that sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution empower it to conduct an inquiry on how PAMO University spent the funds being appropriated to it.

Speaking, Maol said documents provided by the state Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education were contradictory.

Maol said documents from the state Ministry of Finance showed that the university has since 2017 received over N28bn from the Rivers State government, including N1bn received in 2026, which he said gives the Assembly the constitutional right to inquire how the funds were spent.

“The records we have are showing that they have collected over N28bn. That even this year they have collected over N1bn already in their kitty. And the money is in PAMO University account. Here is the record.

“And that is the reason why we are saying the only person that can speak to this document presented by the Ministry of Finance to this committee is the Chief Accounting Officer of PAMO University, which is the Vice-Chancellor.

“And that is in line with the Constitution. So the Vice Chancellor must appear,” he stated.