Ex-Minister of State for Works, Chief Chris Ogiemwonyi, 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 our source 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.
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