The Man Great Ovedje Ogboru Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, popularly called The Peoples General, was

born on the 10th day of April, 1958 in Port Harcourt into the famous Ogboru Dynasty of Abraka in Delta Central and the Okolocha family of Umukuata in Delta North. Young Great showed exceptional traits of intelligence, industry, and leadership throughout his elementary school days in Municipal Primary School, Port Harcourt, Christian Missionaries Society (CMS) Primary School, Abraka and Local Authority (LA) (now Oharisi) Primary School, Ughelli from 1966 to 1971. He was admitted into the prestigious Government College, Ughelli (GCU) in 1971 and finished in 1975. Upon completion of his secondary education at Government College, Ughelli, he immediately commenced work as a primary school teacher. He taught for four years in Owodoawanre Primary School, Ughelli. Within this period, he, despite serious constraints worked, very hard and earned for himself a very outstanding external Advanced Levels result. In 1980, Great Ogboru was faced with the real challenges of his names. The fourth in a family of 16 children, Great appreciated fully the financial challenges that training 16 children posed to his parents modest income. He chose therefore to momentarily sacrifice his own higher academic ambition, to pay a price in order for his siblings to avoid the judders of the uneducated. Consequently, on a rainy Saturday morning, in January 1978, he left home, clutching a bag that contained only four shirts and three trousers, and headed to Lagos in search of greatness. A bold step of faith that has transformed lives beyond just his. With his A Levels result, he received several offers from established organizations but opted to work as a Marketing Officer in Exchange Fisheries Limited, a small fishing company based in Lagos. This strange decision was a necessary apprenticeship opportunity for him. In this period of apprenticeship, he enrolled as a correspondence student to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, London. In 1983, he left paid employment and started his own business. Banking on his uncommon sense of honesty and immense goodwill as main capitals, he established Fiogret Limited, a fish trading firm. Operating on the twin concepts of Absolute Customer Satisfaction and Delivering a Standard of Living, he grew Fiogret by dint of hardwork and grace into an octopus fishing conglomerate. Within three years of the establishment of Fiogret, Great Ogboru, then a young man of about Twenty-Five years, established amongst others, the following subsidiaries of Fiogret in quick succession: Grato Nigeria Limited, Warri, a foremost furniture production company. Grato won a National Award for Excellence in 1987. GLE Finance Limited, Lagos, a finance company with bureau de change operations. SOFIMAR Nigeria Limited, a Joint Venture with the former Union Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) Government of President Mikhail Gorbachev. SOFIMAR was capitalised to the tune of USD5M and had a proposed asset base of USD20M. Abraka Rubber Industries Limited Ajalomi Shipping Company Limited Fiogret Fisheries Limited West Coast Publicity Company Limited Fiogret Express Limited, a transport company

He also received a banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate Ethiope Commercial Bank Limited.

Great Ogboru, in appreciation of the benevolence of God to him, took a decision to touch the life of fellow human beings. His companies employ on an equal opportunity basis. His scholarship schemes do not consider ethnicity, race or colour. His philanthropic works are rooted in humility. Whenever he is asked about what he has done for society he says, Ask the people. I am just favoured by grace to be an instrument in Gods hands. Great Ovedje Ogboru firmly believes in humanity and its preservation. On August 10, 1989, he took the world stage by surprise as the youngest and highest Nigerian donor to the Namibia Solidarity Fund (NSF) in the ancient city of Benin. He stood with the people of Namibia in their struggle for freedom because according to him, Humanity is one. Great Ogboru is unapologetically democratic and a natural hater and fighter of any form of sociopolitical dictatorship, tyranny or hegemonic misrule. A school of thought believes that this gives credence to the allegation by the President Ibrahim Babangida regime that he provided the financial backbone and logistics for the Major Gideon Orkar coup of April 20, 1990. This allegation was later dropped in 1999 by the government of General Abdulsalam Abubakar. The allegation of sponsoring the Orkar revolutionary putsch sent him into self-exile in the United Kingdom from 23rd April, 1990 to 30th June, 2000, a period of 10 years and 68 days. These years of the locust and cankerworms marked a deliberate destruction of his vast domestic business empire by military governments. Great Ogboru does not resign to fate; he makes things happen in even in the darkest of times. So, exile afforded him an opportunity to complete the missing link in his educational career. With less busy business schedules then, he secured admission into the Chartered Institute of Marketing, London and upon completion of his studies, he proceeded to the Huron University of South Dakota, London Campus where he obtained a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Thereafter he went on to obtain a Masters of The Arts degree in International Relations (MA/IR) at the University of Kent in Canterbury. His did an outstanding research work at Kent on the effects of IMFs Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) on the economies of Ghana and Nigeria. Chief Great Ogboru is a member of the Nigeria Policy Group (NPG), an august body that financed and coordinated the struggle to return Nigeria to democracy in the hay days of military dictatorship. He is the national leader of the South-South Rainbow Coalition (SSRC), a robust political movement in Southern Nigeria. He contested the 2003 Governorship Election on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He is a founding member of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the partys Governorship Candidate for the 2007 General Elections. He challenged the outcomes of both elections in court. On November 9, 2010 the Court of Appeal, sitting in Benin upheld his position that the 2007 Governorship election never held in Delta State. He is therefore a candidate in the re-run election to be conducted in the State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, a Christian, is married to Chief (Mrs.) Ebi Stella Ogboru, an Ijaw from Bayelsa State. They have four children. He holds the traditional titles of The Omamuyovwi (The Good Head) of Ughelli Kingdom and also The Omamuyovwi of Abraka Kingdom.