Omoniyi Caleb Olubolade | |
Office1: | Administrator of Bayelsa State |
Term Start1: | 27 June 1997 |
Term End1: | 9 July 1998 |
Predecessor1: | Habu Daura |
Successor1: | Paul Obi |
Office2: | Federal Minister of Special Duties |
Term Start2: | 6 April 2010 |
Term End2: | 2015 |
Birth Date: | 30 November 1954 |
Birth Place: | Ipoti-Ekiti, Ijero LGA, Ekiti State, Nigeria |
Nationality: | Nigerian |
Allegiance: | Nigeria |
Rank: | Navy Captain |
Navy Captain Omoniyi Caleb Olubolade (born 30 November 1954) is a former Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, Nigeria who was appointed Minister of Special Duties on 6 April 2010, when Acting President Goodluck Jonathan announced his new cabinet.[1]
Olubolade was born on 30 November 1954 at Ipoti-Ekiti in Ijero LGA of Ekiti State. He was commissioned into the Nigerian Navy in 1974, and attended courses including the Britannia Royal Naval College, UK in 1975 and the Naval College of Engineering, India in 1979.[2] On 9 June 1997, he was appointed Military Administrator of the newly created Bayelsa State by the military government of General Sani Abacha.[3] As governor, on 4 May 1998, he established the Bayelsa State Council for Arts & Culture.[4] Olubolade retired from the Nigerian Navy in 1999 at the start of the new democratic regime (Fourth Republic).[5]
In April 2006, Olubolade was briefly arrested during a House of Representatives by-election in the Ekiti South II Federal Constituency.[6] He was an aspirant to become Action Congress (AC) candidate for governor of Ekiti State in the April 2007 elections.[7] Later in 2006, he defected to the People's Democratic Party (PDP). He was appointed Chairman of the Ekiti State Project Monitoring Committee by Governor Segun Oni. Olubolade was a front runner in the Ekiti state governorship race 2014 election, under the Peoples Democratic Party. Olubolade formerly declared his governorship ambition on Saturday, 22 February 2014, at the PDP state secretariat Ado Ekiti[8]