12 Facts About Peter Odili

Peter Otunuya Odili was born on 15 August 1948 and is a Nigerian politician who was the third elected Governor of Rivers State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.

Peter Odili graduated from the Medical School of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and pursued post-graduate work in Tropical Medicine at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Peter Odili thereafter became the National Secretary of the defunct Democratic Party of Nigeria.

Peter Odili was elected Governor of Rivers State during the 1999 Rivers State gubernatorial election, and was reelected in April 2003.

In September 2004, Amnesty International wrote an open letter to Peter Odili expressing deep concerns for protection of human rights of civilians in and around Port Harcourt, detailing an increasingly alarming security situation in Rivers State, due to fighting allegedly between rival armed groups.

In February 2007, three months to the end of his second term in office, Peter Odili filed a suit challenging the powers of the EFCC to probe his administration in Rivers State.

In November 2006, Peter Odili announced that he would run for president in the 2007 election under the ruling PDP.

However a day before the PDP's presidential primaries held on 16 December 2006, Peter Odili stepped down from the contest, paving the way for another governor, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, to emerge as the party's flag bearer.

In June 2008, Peter Odili defended his record before the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission, denying the charges that had been made against him.

However, a few days later the EFCC summoned Peter Odili over alleged debts owed to five banks whose Managing Directors and board had recently been removed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The author talked to a man called Adiele Nwaeze, who accused Peter Odili of having paid him to help rig an election ten years ago by robbing ballot boxes.

In September 2010, it was reported that former military head of state Ibrahim Babangida, who planned to be a presidential candidate in the 2011 election, was in discussions with Peter Odili over being his running mate as vice-presidential candidate.