By Abiola Olawale
Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has celebrated the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lee Engineering Group and Allied Companies Limited, Chief Leemon Ikpea, OON, CON, JP, on the occasion of his 68th birthday.
The governor, in a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua praised Ikpea for his significant contributions to business and philanthropy.
Okpebholo, in the statement, praised Ikpea as “a distinguished businessman and philanthropist. Chief Ikpea has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the development of Nigeria’s energy sector, earning him widespread recognition and accolades.”
The New Diplomat reports that Dr Leemon Agbonjagwe Ikpea, CON, FNSE, JP, the Adolor of Ewatto, was born at Ewatto in Esan South East, Edo State, on December 19, 1956. He attended St. John’s Primary School in Ajamogha, Warri.
He further added to his feathers when he bagged a degree in owner President management program from the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Chief Ikpea is the founder, Owner and Executive Chairman of Lee Engineering and Allied Companies Limited, which is a foremost homegrown oil, gas and power services company, performing extraordinary and commendable services in the Nigerian business environment. Lee Engineering Group and Allied Companies Limited is an indigenous company which has offices in Warri, Benin, Abuja and Portharcourt and is headquartered in Lagos.
Indeed, Chief Ikpea’s Lee Engineering Group and Allied Companies Ltd is a high-level service provider in the Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Operation and Maintenance (EPCOM) with over 30 years of experience in the oil, gas and power sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Incorporated in 1991, the indigenous and first-class company expanded its scope of operations in 2007 to include maintenance and attainment of optimal performance in the operations and maintenance of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 34. l, amongst others.
Beyond the shores of Nigeria, Lee Engineering has partners /offices in the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States of America (USA).
The Utorogu gas plant, located in Delta State, was successfully constructed by his company, Lee Engineering Construction Company, on a build, return and operate basis.
As a first-class company with a forward-looking vision, Lee Engineering was propelled to set up a high-level fabrication plant to contribute its quota to the oil and gas sector and to help in the successful transition to the indigenization of the nation’s technology sector as it relates to the oil, gas and power sector.
Chief Ikpea is not only a billionaire business mogul, he is also a great philanthropist of immense stature. To also advance charitable and philanthropic causes, Chief Ikpea, in 2012, founded the Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Foundation (ALIF), which has been rendering valuable services to humanity through charitable acts like the award of scholarships to indigent students and youths, including great support to orphans. The promotion and advancement of Education has also been a fulcrum of the ALIF.
Through the foundation, Dr Ikpea, the Lee Engineering Executive Chairman, has donated heavily to several educational institutions and social welfare programmes all around the country and also touched the lives of many women and other members of the general public, including the vulnerable and less privileged.
Indeed, these are philanthropic gestures the foundation carries out without noise.
Chief Dr Leemon Ikpea, CON, FNSE, JP holds the prestigious title of Odonlagbon of the Warri kingdom, a very rare honour for a non-Itsekiri, bestowed on him by Olu of Warri. Chief Ikpea is the Adolor of Ewatto, his hometown in Esan South East LGA of Edo state.
