Onyema Ugochukwu

Ugochukwu served as the senior Special Adviser on Communication to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and the first Executive Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

[3] However, on 11 February 2009 an appeal court in Port Harcourt overturned the ruling, declaring that Theodore Orji of the PPA had in fact won the election.

The political turmoil which followed the first military coup in 1966 escalated into a civil war when the south-east region of Nigeria seceded as the Republic of Biafra a year later.

In 1983, Ugochukwu became Editor in Chief of the London-based West Africa magazine, where he wrote extensively on development issues, to provide a better understanding of the African debt crisis.

The hotly contested race was marred by allegations of electoral malpractice, and violence, all of which culminated in the election of Ugochukwu's rival, Theodore Orji of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA).

Orji and his deputy had failed to resign their respective positions in the Abia State government, 30 days prior to the election as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution.

[12] Ugochukwu was thus declared the lawful winner of the April 2007 gubernatorial election, and Governor-elect of Abia State – pending the outcome at the Port Harcourt Appeals Court.

[13] However, on 11 February 2009 an appeal court in Port Harcourt overturned the ruling, declaring that Theodore Orji of the PPA had in fact won the election.