INTRODUCTION
Princess Stella Oduah Ogiemwonyi is a Senator for Nigeria and a former Minister of Aviation. She was born on January 5, 1962, and her maiden name was Oduah. She was formally appointed to the ministerial role and took her oath of office on July 2, 2011, and on July 4, 2011, she reported for duty at the Ministry of Aviation. On February 12, 2014, she was nevertheless stripped of her responsibilities as the Minister of Aviation. In addition, she was very involved in the political campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan, where she worked as the Director of Administration and Finance for his campaign.
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EARLY LIFE/EDUCATION
On January 5, 1962, Oduah was born in Akili-Ozizor, Ogbaru L.G.A. in the state of Anambra. His father, Igwe D.O. Oduah, was the traditional chief of the area. Oduah-Ogiemwonyi went to school in the United States and earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees there. She studied accounting and business administration, respectively. In 1983, she relocated back to her home country of Nigeria and began working for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
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CAREER
Alongside David Mark, President of the Senate, and Viola Onwuliri, Foreign Minister, she was one of the delegates chosen by the President to attend the papal inauguration of Pope Francis in 2013. She did so in 2013.
The accounts of her four companies were reportedly frozen on February 23, 2017, by the Federal high court in Lagos due to an alleged debt of $16,412,819.06 and N100,493,225.59. This information was published in Punch Newspaper. There are a total of 21 bank accounts spread among four companies: Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, Sea Shipping Agency Limited, Rotary Engineering Services Limited, and Tour Afrique Company Limited.
She has been at the center of a number of controversies, including allegations that Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi allegedly lied about how she obtained an MBA degree from St. Paul’s College. These controversies range from allegations that she purchased highly inflated BMW bullet-proof cars without following due process to allegations that she lied about how she obtained the degree. However, authorities at St. Paul’s College, where Mrs. Oduah claimed she studied for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, were quoted on the news website SaharaReporters on January 6th, 2014 as saying they did not award her an MBA at any time due to the fact that the university does not even have a graduate school or graduate program. SaharaReporters reported that the statement was made. She has stated that during her second term in government, she will work to eliminate cancer and reduce the usage of illegal drugs.
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She won a seat in the Nigerian Senate to represent the Anambra North Senatorial District in the election that took place in 2015. She was one of just seven women elected to represent their district in the 8th. The others were Rose Okoji Oko, Uche Ekwunife, Fatimat Raji Rasaki, Oluremi Tinubu, Abiodun Olujimi and Binta Garba. In 2019, Oduah won re-election to the Senate, giving her a chance to serve for a second consecutive term.
She resigned from her position at the NNPC in 1992 in order to launch the Sea Petroleum & Gas Company Limited (SPG), which is an independent marketer of petroleum products in Nigeria.
Stella Oduah and the Nigerian Subsidiary of Chinese Construction Giant, CCECC, were indicted on allegations of fraudulent cash transactions totaling approximately N5 billion over the course of five months in 2014 by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on February 9.
Stella Oduah joined the All Progressives Congress on 26 August 2021, the same day that she resigned from the People’s Democratic Party. When challenged about her decision to join the ruling party, she responded that she did so because she wanted to alter the “political narrative” in the South-East portion of the country.
FAMILY
She is a mother of several children and was previously married to Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, who served as Minister of Works.