SECRETARY TO THE COMMISSION-Mrs. Augusta Chinwe Ogakwu:

Mrs Chinwe Ogakwu

Mrs. Augusta Chinwe Ogakwu was born in Enugu State to the late Chief V. I. O. Ugwumba (retired Commissioner of Police) and Mrs. Anne Azogini Ugwumba of Abidi Village, Umuoji, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

After her primary education, she attended Girls’ Secondary School, Onitsha, where she obtained the West African School Certificate (Ordinary Level). She studied at the Imo State University, (now Abia State University) and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree in 1985 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986.  She obtained a Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M) in 1990, majoring in Comparative Company Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Secured Credit Transactions and International Economic Law.

She joined the then newly established National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a pioneer Staff of the Prosecution Unit in 1990. Between 1990 and 1996, she was Lead Prosecutor of Narcotics and Psychotropic Drug Offenders at the Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal (MOT), Lagos, and within that period, rose from the rank of Senior Legal Officer to Assistant Chief Legal Officer.

In 1998, she joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a Chief Legal Officer. While serving as an Assistant Director, she was appointed as the Acting Director, Legal Services in 2003 and served until September 2005. On concluding this tour of duty as a substantive Deputy Director, she began to explore the evolving discipline of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), on the conviction that the Nigerian Electoral Process would benefit from the introduction of ADR into Electoral Dispute Resolution. In December 2008, the Commission mandated her to organize the first ever National Workshop on ADR, focusing on the application of ADR to electoral/political disputes. The success of this workshop led to the eventual establishment of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit in INEC in May 2009.

Mrs. Ogakwu is a member of several professional bodies including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar Association (IBA), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) (CIArb. UK) and the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, (ICMC)

She is also a member, International Dispute Resolution Institute (IDRI); Fellow of ICMC; Member, International Dispute Resolution Institute and a Certified Professional and Trainer in Workplace Mediation and Conflict Management from the Mediation Training Institute (MTI) Alberta, Canada. She has taken courses in Conflict Analysis, Negotiation and Conflict Management from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and underwent the Senior Executive Leadership Training organized by the Australian Awards in Africa Professional Development.

On 1st January 2011, Mrs. Ogakwu was promoted to the rank of Director and was moved to the Legal Services Department on 5th April, 2013 as the first substantive Director of the Department since 2002.

She was appointed Secretary to the Commission on 9th of July 2013 and was sworn into office on the 1st day of August 2013.

She is married to a serving Federal Judicial Officer and they are blessed with children.