Captain Hosa Okunbo
Moody faces of persons huddled in small groups define the ambience in Benin City, Edo State, with the announcement of the news of the death of business mogul, Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo, who died of pancreatic cancer in a London hospital early Sunday morning,
More popularly called Captain Hosa, he was aged 63 and until his demise was chairman of Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL).
A prominent politician and philanthropist, Captain Hosa was born on January 7, 1958 in Benin City, into the family of Reverend Robert Amos Okunbo, a clergyman and teacher.
He attended Federal Government College, Warri. He was a clearly a man of early blooming having qualified as a commercial pilot at 21 after graduating from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Training Centre, Zaria, Kaduna State.
He later attended ACME School of Aeronautics, Fort Worth Texas, United States, where he obtained an Airline Transport Pilot Licence. He was a flight captain with Intercontinental Airlines and also worked at Okada Airlines. He retired from commercial pilot duties at the early age of 30 before veering into business.
He founded and chaired many companies including CMES-OMS Petroleum Development Company (CPDC), which, in September 2019, signed $875.75m alternative financing deal for the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) operated OML 65; The Wells Carlton Hotel and Apartments; Wells San-Carlos Agro Farms Ltd., which unveiled a $750 million, 9,000-hectare farm in Edo in 2016, and Ocean Marine Security Ltd., an offshore asset-protection company.
