Oghenefejiro Emado
21, October 2026
A Niger Delta environmental rights advocate and National Democratic Party (NDP) House of Representatives candidate for Warri Federal Constituency, Comrade Mulade Sheriff PhD, has mourned the death of former Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan.
Comrade Mulade, who is also the National Coordinator of the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), said he received the news of Uduaghan’s death with profound shock.
Uduaghan, 71, died in the early hours of Monday, October 19, 2026, three days to his 72nd birthday.
In a condolence message made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Warri, Delta State, Mulade said the death of the former governor was not just the death of a former governor but the fall of an Iroko and the exit of a political colossus.
According to him, the passing is a monumental loss to Delta State, the Itsekiri Nation, the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.
Mulade, writing on behalf of the Board of Trustees, Management, Staff and Volunteers of CEPEJ and the people of Warri Federal Constituency, recalled the public service trajectory of the late Uduaghan, describing it as a lesson in loyalty, diligence and competence.
He noted that Uduaghan, who was born on October 22, 1954, in Abigborodo, Warri North Local Government Area, into the Royal Uduaghan Family of Itsekiri extraction, was a brilliant medical scholar who attended Federal Government College, Warri and the University of Benin, where he obtained his MBBS and Diploma in Anaesthesia.
Mulade said Uduaghan worked as Consultant Anaesthesiologist at the Delta Steel Company Medical Centre, Westend Hospital Warri, Benoni Hospital Benin and Shell Hospital Ogunu, before establishing his private medical practice in Warri in 1994.
He said Uduaghan served as Commissioner for Health from 1999 to 2003 under Chief James Ibori where he revolutionized healthcare delivery, and as Secretary to the State Government from 2003 to 2007, where he served as the engine room of the Ibori administration, before becoming Governor from 2007 to 2015.
Describing him as the “Talk and Do Governor,” Mulade said Uduaghan’s administration was anchored on his Three-Point Agenda of Peace and Security, Human Capital Development and Infrastructure Development, and his visionary Delta Beyond Oil initiative.
He said long before Nigeria started debating economic diversification, Uduaghan had invested in agriculture, tourism, entertainment and industrialization.
Mulade listed some of the legacies of the late governor to include his role as a major pillar behind the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme under President Umaru Yar’Adua, which restored peace in Warri and the creeks and raised crude oil production from 700,000 to over 2.4 million barrels per day.
Others, according to him, are the construction of the Asaba International Airport, expansion of Osubi Airstrip, dualization of roads in Asaba, construction of thousands of kilometers of roads across the state, free maternal healthcare for pregnant women and free healthcare for children under five which reduced maternal mortality from 545 per 100,000 live births in 2007 to 241 in 2012.
He also cited the establishment of the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara (DELSUTH), 13 Model Secondary Schools, 54 Model Primary Schools and the First-Class Graduate Scholarship Scheme of N5 million per annum.
Mulade said at CEPEJ, Uduaghan will be remembered as a peace-loving leader who always opened his doors to civil society organizations and youth groups.
He condole with the wife of the deceased, Deaconess Roli Uduaghan, his children, Chief James Ibori, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, the Uduaghan Royal Family of Abigborodo and the Itsekiri Nation, praying God to grant his soul eternal rest.
