Tears As Police Say Missing Eminent Nigerian-Born Diplomat, Ambassador Otobo Is Found Dead In The US

Eminent Nigerian-Born Diplomat, Ambassador Ejeviome Eloho Otobo has been found dead in the United States, Police Authorities have disclosed.

Police said that Ambassador Otobo, a Tuckahoe resident (New York) who had gone missing was found dead Thursday afternoon.

Ejeviome Eloho Otobo, 70, an excellent diplomat of long-standing, was educated at the Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA, USA where he took his post- graduate degree in Economics. His subject areas of interest include peacebuilding, public sector reforms, institutional development, governance, regulatory policy and management, and international trade. Ambassador Otobo according to the Police, was last seen on June 15 near Dante Avenue in Tuckahoe.

Police posted on one of its social media platforms, (Facebook) that they conducted an extensive search with a helicopter flying for a wider viewpoint on Thursday in the course of investigations.

On Friday morning, they posted on Facebook that Ambassador Otobo’s body had been found dead. No other details were released by the Police.

Reacting to this very sad news, Professor Muritala. J. Balogun, a former Special Adviser to a former President of the United Nations General Assembly and a one-time Director General of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), confirmed the news to GPNews( a New Jersey based digital platform) that the late Ambassador Otobo was his colleague both at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York.

In the same vein, another colleague of the deceased said: “Ambassador Otobo, brilliant, just and objective gentleman that has been missing since last week, has now been found deceased. Will miss you so much Amb. Otobo. Grace and peace upon his family and friends. Amen.”

On the Linkedin profile of Ambassador Otobo, an accomplished author, writer and public commentator on national and international subject matters, it states the following in terms of his distinguished career as an Eminent Diplomat and first class Professional:

A Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Peacebuilding and Global Economic Policy at the Global Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium, who had previously held the position of Director and Deputy Head of the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, where he also acted as Assistant Secretary-General from February-August 2009.

At PBSO, he led the Office’s efforts in assisting the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) to develop peacebuilding strategies, including supporting governance reforms and reconciliation processes for countries on the agenda of the PBC; supervised the work related to the follow-up, monitoring and periodic reporting on the implementation of the peacebuilding strategies; and formulated benchmarks for monitoring progress in the implementation of peacebuilding strategies.

His areas of research interests and writing include peacebuilding, public service reforms, institutional development, governance, regulatory policy and management, and international trade.

He co-edited African Development in the 21st Century: Adebayo Adedeji’s Theories and Contributions (2015) as well as authored Consolidating Peace in Africa: The Role of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (2015) and Africa in Transition: A New Way of Looking at Progress in the Region (2017).

The book, Africa in Transition was nominated for the Grand Prix of Literary Association Award in 2018 in the Research category.

Until his sad demise, he also served on the editorial advisory board of The New Diplomat Newspaper.