Commodore Amadi Guy Ikwechegh (25 February 1951 – 10 November 2009) was a Nigerian naval officer who was appointed military governor of

Imo State Imo State ( ig, Ȯra Imo) is a States of Nigeria, state in the South East (Nigeria), South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north by Anambra State, Rivers State to the west and south, and Abia State to the east. It takes its n ...

from 1986 to 1989 during the military regime of General

Ibrahim Babangida Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August, 1941) is a retired Nigerian Army general and politician. He served as military president of Nigeria from 1985 until his resignation in 1993. He rose through the ranks to serve from 1984 to 1985 as Ch ...

Birth and education

Amadi Ikwechegh was born on 25 February 1951 in Amakpo, Igbere in Bende,

Abia State Abia State ( ig, Ȯha Abia) is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, it is bordered to the north and northeast by the states of Enugu, and Ebonyi, Imo State to the west, Cross River State to the east, Akwa Ibom State to the ...

. He attended Township School in Aba and the

Nigerian Military School The Nigerian Military School Zaria, popularly known as (NMS), founded as the Boys-Company of Nigeria in 1954, was established under the auspices of Nigerian Regiment Training centre of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF). The school was ...

Zaria Zaria is a metropolitan city in Nigeria which at the present time lies within four (4) local government areas in Kaduna state; it happens to be the capital city to the Zazzau Emirate Council, and one of the original seven Hausa city-states ...

(1963 to 1966), and attended the

Nigerian Defence Academy The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) is a military university based in Kaduna, Nigeria that trains officer cadets for commissioning into one of the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The duration of t ...

, Kaduna in 1971. He was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in 1974. He then studied at Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the Royal Hydrographic School, Australia and the Naval School of Oceanography, USA. He attended the Armed Forces Command & Staff College, Jaji, and also earned a masters in Strategic Studies from the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

Naval career

As a naval officer, Ikwechegh served in various capacities including Military Port Commandant of Lagos Port, Hydrographer of the Navy, Director of Naval Intelligence and commander of the Navy's operational Bases in Okemini, Anansa and Olokun . He also commanded NNS Lana, the naval survey ship and was Commander of NNS Iriomi as Naval Task Force Commander,

ECOMOG The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work ...

Forces, Liberia. He was a member of the Nigerian Hydrographic Society and the Nigerian Institute of

Surveyors Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

. He served as ADC to Military Governor of Niger State, Commodore

Ebitu Ukiwe Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe (born 26 October 1940) is a retired Commodore in the Nigerian Navy who served as the de facto Vice President of Nigeria under military head of state General Ibrahim Babangida from 1985 to 1986. Family Ukiwe was born on 26 Octobe ...

. From 1987 to 1990 he was Military Governor of Imo State and a member of the Provisional Ruling Council.

Later life

He was retired in June 1999, along with all other military officers who had held political offices. He then went into marine related business in Port Harcourt. Amadi Ikwechegh died on 10 November 2009 after a protracted illness following a stroke he suffered in 2007. Chief

Theodore Orji Theodore Ahamefule Orji CON is a Nigerian politician who was governor of Abia State in southeast Nigeria from 2007 to 2015. He was formerly a career civil servant, and served as the Chief of Staff to Abia Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. Background ...

, governor of

from May 2007, was his senior assistant secretary when Ikwechegh was governor of old Imo State. After Ikwechegh's death, Orji described him as an intelligent and no-nonsense administrator.

References

1951 births 2009 deaths Governors of Imo State Graduates of Britannia Royal Naval College Nigerian Defence Academy alumni University of Ibadan alumni {{Nigeria-mil-bio-stub