Otti Appoints LP State Assembly Candidate Whose Billboard Was Destroyed By ABSSAA To Head Same Agency

The Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti has appointed the Labour party House of Assembly candidate for Obingwa West Mrs. Victoria Onwubiko, who during the electioneering period of 2023, had her campaign billboard removed by ex-Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, MD/CEO of Abia State Signages and Structures Advertising Agency(ABSSAA).

Mrs Onwubiko suffered what became operation ‘pull down her billboard’ which was orchestrated by the then ruling Peoples Democratic party (PDP) government through the ABSSAA.

Ikpeazu reportedly ordered the pulling down of a Labour Party (LP) billboard flex banner in his local government area, Obingwa during the last election.

The billboard, a 48-sheet site, was located at Obikabia Junction in Obingwa and was erected by Mrs.Victoria Onwubiko as a Labour Party Abia State House of Assembly candidate for Obingwa West.

The banner on the billboard had the image of Mrs Onwubiko alongside that of Dr Alex Otti, Labour Party governorship candidate for Abia State at the time.

According to Onwubiko, her agent had been told by a staff of ABSSAA) that there was a direct instruction from the governor to pull down the banner, failing which the entire site would be uprooted.

Hon. Victoria Onwubiko, who was recently listed as a member of the Secretariat of Abia Global Economic Advisory Council (AGEAC), has been in the private sector for the greater part of her working life.

She moved to the East in 2018, after a long, fruitful corporate career, in pursuit of her desire to make a positive impact for her adopted home state, by marriage.

In 2023, she ran for the Abia State House of Assembly in Obingwa West under the Labor Party platform.

Her last assignment prior to returning to the East to forage in business and politics was as the Chief Marketing Officer for Wakanow, a travel management company with the responsibility for building a global brand for the fast growing, pioneering company.

Before Wakanow, she was Head of Brand Management for First Bank Nigeria responsible for delivering high performance brand strategy, Sales growth, Customer insight and overall brand equity for the First Bank and her subsidiary businesses.

She was also Head of StakeHolder Management for a while at the Bank.

Hon Onwubiko is result-oriented in delivering customer centred value and was awarded the “Most Outstanding Staff of the year (2011)” at the FirstBank CEO Annual Merit Awards for, amongst other reasons, her significant success in new account acquisitions with the launch of a new banking product, FirstInstant, targeted at the unbanked Nigerians, in collaborations with CBN.

She left Firstbank as a Senior Manager in the Marketing and Corporate Communications Dept.

Other work experiences include being the Brand/Market Expansions Manager, Corporate, at Airtel, (formerly Vmobile), where she was pivotal to the massive roll out of Vmobile across Nigeria.

Hon. Onwubiko also had a short stint at DDB Lagos, an advertising agency, as Brand Director; a 7 year work experience at Unilever where she joined as a Management Trainee and rose to Senior Marketing and Sales Manager.

She was also the Head of Marketing for a couple of Start-Ups at the time including Tantalizers and 3Line Card Management Company.

Overall, she has over 20 years of marketing management experience in leading companies in FMCG; Telecoms, Financial Services(Banking, Insurance and the Capital markets), Electronic card payments, Advertising, Money Transfer services and Fast Foods.

Hon. Victoria is skilled in finding marketing solutions that actually help sell products. Her key competence is in Marketing and primarily in Brand management strategies that deliver solutions offline and online.

In the course of her career, she has launched and re-launched several brands and managed them, cross functionally, to achieve desired results.

She is a Deloitte Certified Trainer in Communicating for Change and has experience working across African countries.

She has a few degrees under her belt including a BA in Mass Communications(UNN) , an MSc in Sociology,(LASU) A Diploma in Marketing(UNILAG) and an MBA in Marketing(University of Leicester London).

Hon. Victoria is an associate member of APCON(Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria) and also member of NIMN(Nigerian Institute of Marketing Management).