Wike vs Odili wars enter new fierce levels

The much-expected war between a godson and godfather in Rivers State has exploded. The Peter and Mary Odili (PAMO) University of Medical Sciences is the battleground.

Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister, is fighting through the Rivers State House of Assembly led by his kinsman, Martins Amaewhule, while Odili is fighting through the office of the Vice Chancellor of his university.

The excuse for the start of the battle is N6bn found in the Rivers State 2026 budget proposal submitted in August 2026 which was headlined PAMO University. The House rejected the appropriation saying they did not know what such an amount was doing in the name of a private university.

The House is said to have later dug into the files and ‘found’ other allocations going to the private university over the years.

The stand of the House appeared popular. They then pursued further by not only yanking it off but by starting a probe. Next, they invited the University and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education to come explain.

The Rivers State House of Assembly has launched an inquiry into funds released by the state government to the Pamo University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), Port Harcourt, since the institution was established in 2017.

The House, in a statement signed Enemi George, the chairman of Information Committee, said the investigation was ordered by Martins Amaewhule, Speaker of the State House of Assembly.

It said a seven-member committee headed by Dumle Maol, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, has been constituted to carry out the inquiry and report back to the House.

The statement said the probe was in line with Section 128 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

The statement is titled, “Rivers State House of Assembly Ad-Hoc Committee to Conduct an Inquiry Into Rivers State Government’s Disbursement of Funds to PAMO University of Medical Sciences (PUMS).”

It said the probe would determine how much money the Rivers State government has provided to the institution and whether the funds were properly used for their intended purposes.

The statement further said the investigation would also establish the number and identities of beneficiaries of the University’s scholarship scheme if any, among other issues.

The House said the committee is expected to submit its report to the House on or before September 30, 2026.

“This Ad-hoc committee is expected to submit its report on or before the 30th of September 2026 to the House.”

The investigation comes on the heels of the Assembly’s decision not to approve the N6 billion allocated to the University in the 2026 state budget.

None attended

The Committee now issued a warrant of arrest against the VC. The University went to court against as expected, but met some obstacles. Later, they targeted the Police and secured an injunction restraining the law enforcement agency from executing any arrest order. Many await the next turn of the war, which they believe must come.

Many loyalists of both camps refuse to say a word about the war that just exploded. This may because most of them are loyalists of both godfather and godson.

The lawmakers cannot say they did not know what the N6bn was meant for, or when it started.

It began in 2017 two years after Wike became governor of Rivers State, through a fierce legal battle that got to the Supreme Court. Many believed Wike could lose because his party (PDP) lost at the centre while Amaechi was made super minister in the new APC federal government.

New love in 2015:

Odili wife, Mary, was a justice of the Supreme Court. Wike gave testimony at a church in Port Harcourt after his victory, giving huge credit to his new found godfather, Odili and his wife.

This was understood to mean that the Odili family helped him secure favours. Wike bounced back to deny such insinuations, explaining that he meant that Odili merely gave him advice on who to meet. Many allowed that to ride.

When Odili later opened the University in 2017, Wike announced N500m grant and 100 Rivers State government medical scholars to study there. This continued every year. Wike continued to win many controversial cases in various courts and used those victories to climb to the apex of Nigerian party politics. Today, he seems to decide who would win where in Nigeria.

History of love tango:

Wike was against Odili when Amaechi was at war with his godfather, Odili. Wike had been given second term as Obio/Akpor LGA chairman by Odili through the wife, but he fought on the side of Amaechi in the courts and elsewhere.

When Wike began to fight against his brother, Amaechi, somehow, he found favour in the Odili family. Today, some big structures are named after Odili or Mary. Many haboured the impression that Odili family was a big asset to Wike.

The love was so strong that when Wike handpicked Sim Fubara to be governor in 2023, he gave Odili the slot to produce deputy governor, a slot that went to PAMO from where Ngozi Odu, a Professor of Pharmacology, was procured.

When political crisis broke out between Wike and his godson, Fubara, Odu and PAMO (Odili family) tried to stay neutral but it did not last. Odili later said he invited Wike to come and lay his cards on the table but Wike procrastinated r came to this day. Fubara was said to come to the grand godfather who now seemed to convey the endorsement from Wike to Fubara.

The sign was seen in Odili’s support for the elders that stayed behind Fubara, while Ferdinand Alabraba led the other elders that stayed behind Wike. At a point, Wike began to publicly disparage the Odili family and began to refer to ‘one man’. At this point, many knew it was a matter of time before the bubble would burst and war would break out to stage four cancer.

Fubara has since thrown in the towel and seemed to throw most of those elders and other under the bus. In the negotiations for peace, such matters seemed not to have been considered and tidied up. Now, the likes of Odili and other elders as well as groups and youths are exposed to stings. This may be early times.

Our stand: PAMO University:

PAMO University has given its own position. In a statement signed by Peter Akubuiroh, its Registrar, the University said the funds mentioned were not given directly to them but to the Ministry of Education.

PAMO stated thus: The Management of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, wishes to place on record the facts surrounding the recent investigation initiated by the Rivers State House of Assembly, which the University considers malicious and politically motivated.

The Speaker publicly asserted that the University had not been transparent in its use of funds received from the Rivers State Government and had mismanaged funds allegedly appropriated for students on Rivers State Government scholarships. The University rejected these assertions, requested their immediate withdrawal, and demanded a public apology. Neither request was granted. The University maintains that no funds have been appropriated directly to it, the institution had never previously been invited by the Assembly, and that the Speaker’s statements wrongly portrayed it as guilty even before any inquiry had taken place.

Legislative Inquiry

Rather than withdraw the unfounded remarks or apologise, the Speaker constituted an ad hoc committee on Thursday 3 September 2026 to investigate the relationship between the Rivers State Government and PAMO University of Medical Sciences. In response to the committee’s invitation, the University sent an official representative on Wednesday, 16 September 2026. The University states that the committee declined to recognise the representative, refused him audience, and would not accept the letter and supporting documents he sought to submit.

Legal Action and Arrest Warrant

When the University concluded that the process was intended to embarrass it rather than establish the facts, it sought the protection of the court. While the matter remained pending, the Rivers State House of Assembly issued a warrant for the Vice Chancellor’s arrest on Friday, 25 September 2026.

Scholarship Oversight and Funding

Since the Rivers State Government scholarship scheme for students admitted to PAMO University on merit began, the Rivers State Ministry of Education has served as the scheme’s supervising body. The Ministry therefore holds the records of transactions, agreements, and dealings between the University and the State Government. All such records would have been made available to the committee by the Ministry. The University categorically states that it has fulfilled every obligation set out in the Memorandum of Understanding.

PAMO University of Medical Sciences is a private institution. Accordingly, neither the Rivers State Government nor the House of Assembly appropriates money directly to it. Any appropriation is made to the Ministry of Education or other government ministry, department, or agency to meet the state’s scholarship obligations. In practical terms, the State Government sponsors eligible students by paying fees that would otherwise be paid by their parents or other sponsors. The scholarship scheme has enabled Rivers State students to access medical education that may otherwise have been beyond their means.

Impact on Students and the State

The University states that it has avoided escalating the dispute because disruption to medical education would adversely affect about 600 current Rivers State Government scholarship students, together with their families. For the past four months, PAMO University has continued to keep these students on campus despite outstanding school-fee payments, bearing the costs of their tuition, feeding, accommodation, and related expenses.

Through this collaboration, Rivers State students whose families may not otherwise have been able to afford private medical education in Nigeria have graduated in the following fields: Medicine and Surgery, Nursing Science, Medical Laboratory Science, Radiography, Pharmacology, Physiology, Anatomy, and Biochemistry.

Students remain enrolled across these programmes, and the University expects the first Doctor of Physiotherapy students to graduate in due course. It further states that graduates have completed their programmes on schedule and that all programmes hold full accreditation from the relevant regulatory bodies.

The statistics below clearly illustrate the mutual benefits and profound impact of this collaboration in Rivers State. It released figures to show that it had over 600 students from the state government.

The maths:

Search online showed that PAMO charges over N4.5m per medical student per session. Going by this, it would require up to N20bn as fees to take care of the education of the 600 students. This is excluding other spending on the scholars.

The law vs the parliament:

Both Odili and Wike are influential and connected. Each seems to have come with what it has most. Wike seems to fight with his attack fingers (RSHA) while Odili seems to defend with the courts (his wife is a freshly retired Justice of the Supreme Court while his daughter is a Judge of the Federal Capital territory in Abuja. Both camps have networks in and can navigate their ways in the Rivers State judiciary.

Now, the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has restrained the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, from arresting, detaining or compelling the Vice-Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences (PUMS) to appear before the Rivers State House of Assembly’s ad hoc committee investigating the management of funds received by the university from the state government.

The order was issued by the Justice, F. Onyiri, in Suit No. PHC/3692/FHR/2026, filed by Smith Jaja under the Fundamental Human Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009.

The court’s interim order specifically restrained the fourth and fifth respondents, the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, as well as their officers, servants and other security agents, from carrying out or giving effect to any resolution directing them to arrest, apprehend, detain or forcefully compel the applicant to appear before the ad hoc committee or any committee constituted by the Rivers State House of Assembly.

The order is to remain in force pending the hearing and determination of the substantive application filed by the Vice-Chancellor for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.

The Rivers State House of Assembly, its Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Dumle Maol, are listed as the first to third respondents in the suit.

The Justice also granted the Vice-Chancellor leave to serve the Rivers State House of Assembly, the Speaker and Maol with the originating processes and any order of the court by substituted means.

Conclusion:

The interim order may be a temporary setback to the Wike Camp. Now that Fubara is out of the way, the Odili war front may be the new frontier. It may however not be very simple because of the many complications that are involved in days when Wike was a political son of the Odili family, to the point of Wike declaring and imposing curses on himself should he ever make the Odili family drop tears. Many say the tears are getting close.