is the former husband to embattled Aviation Minister,
Princess Stella Oduah. When they went their separate
ways a couple of years ago, having Ogiemwonyi
removed as part of her surname became an issue
between them. To date, her names could still be gleaned
in some publications as Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi.
When Saturday PUNCH got across to the former junior
minister on the telephone on Wednesday in Benin, he
said he had not seen his former wife since 2011. He also
said he had nothing new to add to what is already in the
public domain about the car scandal.
He however did not offer any opinion regarding the
action of NCAA and his former wife's likely role in the
country's show of profligacy, saying both had not seen
since she became minister.
The former minister for state said Nigerians know of
what has been happening and that he had nothing to
say or add. He however empathised with her.
Said Ogiemwonyi, "What concerns me about her? We
have been separated and since she became minister, we
have not seen. You know the time when the issue of
dropping my name came up. We have not seen since
then. We all read comments in the papers, everybody is
listening and even the National Assembly, on the blogs;
they are all full. But all I can tell you is that I last saw
Stella in May 2011; that was when I saw her last. Since
she became minister, I haven't seen her. All I can say is
that I wish her well, but there is nothing more I can
say."
Asked whether he was not bothered about the
controversy generated by the minister's predicament, he
said that was the least of his problems.
Both Ogiemwonyi and Oduah were said to and become
friends when they were working for the Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation. While the former husband was a
young engineer, Oduah was with the account
department of the oil corporation. Their friendship
blossomed and they later became husband and wife.
A blue-blood, Stella Oduah is the daughter of Igwe D. O.
Oduah, Akili Ozizo of Ogbaru in Anambra State. She was
born on January 5, 1962. After her studies at St. Paul's
College, Lawrence Ville, Virginia in the United States in
1983, Oduah joined the Nigeria National Petroleum
Company.
Speaking in an interview three years ago, Oduah
explained why she joined the government-owned
corporation.
She said, "I wanted to be in oil and gas, and I felt my
first leg should be in a national company and NNPC
happened to be the in-thing at that time. It was either
NNPC or banking and I just didn't go into banking. I
wanted oil and gas and so I was lucky I passed the
interview at NNPC and I went in."
In 1992, she floated Sea Petroleum and Gas with a
reported N200,000 bank facility. Her reason: "I don't
think I left NNPC to set up SPG.
"I left NNPC because I wanted to do something more
challenging. I left NNPC because I wasn't getting enough
job satisfaction. That's why I left."
A beautiful woman with a fearless gut that could make
so many men question their masculinity, Oduah's SPG,
with a dodgy track record, has become an octopus in
the oil and gas.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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