PROF. Amos Agbe Utuama, former Deputy Governor of Delta State, has been described as a university don whose sojourn into government brought phenomenal change to the quality of legislation in states. He was deputy to Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan who was Governor from 2007 to 2015.
Ogbueshi Chike Ogeah stated this in his tribute to Utuama.
According to him, “When he left University of Lagos to become Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Delta State, he brought his vast expertise as a law teacher to bear in the quality of bills passed into law by the House of Assembly. That Delta State and other Niger Delta states are today getting a measure of their due in oil revenues through derivation was largely due to his drive for equity for oil producing states. He was able to beat all the obstacles, administrative and legal, to secure victory for oil producing states”, Ogeah who was a Commissioner for Information during Utuama’s second term as deputy governor stated.
“I was privileged to be one of his students at University of Lagos where he taught me land law. It was a course that was reputed to be tough, but Prof. Utuama through his unique mentorship and fatherly approach made us scale through without undue hassles. And when I was Commissioner under him, he extended the same fatherly disposition he had towards me as his student”, Ogeah stated. Extolling the late lecturer, the former Information Commissioner said the level of professionalism and integrity he brought to governance is in stark contrast to the narrative surrounding academics involved in the organisation of elections.
“Prof. Utuama impacted a legacy of service, honour and integrity on us that had the privilege of being his students. He was a very loyal Deputy to his Principal & epitomised simplicity and conscience in governance. May God comfort his family”, Ogeah said.
