Okam Forum set to honour Paul Edeh, Philip Agbese, Obekpa, Peter Adejoh, Aida Nath, Olofu, others in Abuja

The Orokam Development Forum, popularly known as Okam Forum, is set to honour a distinguished lineup of community champions, philanthropists, and professionals at its 2025 Awards and Gala Night.

The event is scheduled for December 11 at Chida International Hotels, Utako, Abuja.

Speaking at a pre-event press briefing on Tuesday, Chairman of the Publicity Sub-Committee, Pastor Jacob Onogwu, said the Awards Night is designed to recognise individuals whose contributions have significantly advanced the development of Orokam and supported the Forum’s vision for a more progressive community.

Among the prominent honourees are Chief Dr. Paul Edeh, Hon. Philip Agbese, Architect Anthony Ejeh Obekpa, Dr. Peter Adejoh, Hon. (Barr.) Aida Nath Ogwuche, and Hon. (Dr.) David Olofu.

They will be recognised alongside several other eminent personalities, including community leaders, captains of industry, senior public servants, and friends of Orokam who have played notable roles in driving development initiatives.

Pastor Onogwu noted that the Awards also celebrate members of the Okam Forum who have excelled in their various fields and demonstrated exceptional commitment to the community’s growth.

He further highlighted the pressing needs in Orokam, especially the dilapidated condition of St. Joseph’s Primary School and the financial strain on the Okam Forum Mutual Health Insurance Scheme.

To address these concerns, the Forum aims to raise ₦60 million during the Awards Night for school rehabilitation and revitalisation of the community health scheme.

Established in 2001, the Okam Forum has implemented several landmark projects, ranging from the construction of a divisional police station to educational scholarships, school rehabilitation efforts, and support for security operations within the community.

The 2025 Awards and Gala Night is expected to attract guests from across the country, as the Forum seeks to both honour its supporters and mobilise resources for key development projects.

Full text of the statement below:

On behalf of the Executive Committee and the entire membership of the Orokam Development Forum, Abuja, it is my special honour and privilege to welcome you to this press briefing, which is intended to herald the 2025 Okam Forum Awards and Gala Night coming up at 6:00PM next Thursday, 11 December, 2025, at the Banquet Hall 2 of the Events Centre of this very same Chida International Hotels, Utako, Abuja.

The purpose of this conference is to formally apprise you of this forthcoming event, and through you, equally sensitise the wider national and the international community. Before going ahead, permit me, ladies and gentlemen of the press, to introduce to you the Orokam Development Forum, Abuja, the organisers of the Awards and Gala Night.

Profile of the Orokam Development Forum

The Orokam Development Forum, Abuja, which is more popularly known as Okam Forum, is a non-profit communal organization embracing Orokam elites resident in and around Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital City. It is a body corporate registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. The Forum aims at promoting the socio-economic development of the Orokam Community in the Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State as well as the overall well-being of its members.
The story of the Okam Forum is akin to that of the young acorn that grows from a very small size into a mighty oak. From a humble beginning with just eleven members who converged on the residence of Elder Michael Idoko at Karu, Abuja, on 13th January, 2001, for the inaugural meeting, the Okam Forum has dramatically blossomed into an impactful body of about eighty eminent Orokam sons and daughters of the community comprising, captains of industry, business moguls, intellectuals and senior public servants, amongst others. Okam Forum holds regular general meetings on the second Sunday every month at the Chida International Hotels, Utako, Abuja, while those of the Executive/ad-hoc Committees and the Board of Trustees are convened as the need arises.
In its twenty-four-year history, the Orokam Development Forum has successfully executed the following flagship projects:
➢ Construction and Furnishing in 2006 of a full-fledged Divisional Police Station Orokam Centre;
➢ Resuscitation and Rehabilitation of the Orokam Preparatory School for Early Education previously run by the UNICEF, 2017;
➢ Award of Scholarships to Exceptional Secondary School Students Selected from the Five Clans of Orokam and Unyi-Ogugu and to children of two deceased Members of the Forum;
➢ Production and Distribution of Exercise Books to the Secondary and Primary Schools in Orokam and Unyi-Ogugu;
➢ Introduction since 2016, an Insurance Scheme, the Okam Forum Mutual Health Insurance Scheme for members of the Orokam Community, one of only eight such schemes across the whole country;
➢ In Collaboration with Other Community Associations, Provision of Logistics Support for the Security Agencies and the Vigilante Groups which are Safeguarding Lives and Properties in the Community.
Overall, the Okam Forum could be said to have fared well. However, a critical review of the entire community trajectory shows that a lot more work still needs to be done.
The Awards
The individuals behind the above success story cannot just go unrecognised. It is against this background that the Okam Forum has deemed it an absolute necessity to host this Awards and Gala Night to profoundly appreciate and honour a number of prominent personalities, some of whom are not necessarily biological sons or daughters of Orokam, but who, as friends, have stood solidly behind us over the years in the battle to lift the community out of the backwoods of underdevelopment. We are equally using the opportunity of the occasion to honour some members of the Okam Forum who have not only shared in the burdens of the community, but have excelled in their various fields of endeavours.
The 2025 Roll of Honour is as follows:
a) Community Service, Generosity and Commitment to Better the Lives of Orokam Community and the Idoma Nation:

1. Architect Anthony Ejeh Obekpa
2. Hon. (Dr.) Mrs. Regina Agwuda Ochube
3. Hon. (Barr.) Aida Nath Ogwuche
4. Hon. (Comrade) Sunday Ameh Ajunwa
5. Hon. (Dr.) David Olofu
6. Hon. (Dr.) Philip Agbese
7. Chief Danjuma Saleh
8. Chief Chris Ben Aakpa
9. Dr. Peter Adejoh
10. Mr. Anthony Ujah
11. Major-Gen. Chris A. Garba, MNI, CON, CFR (Okeno K’Idoma)
12. Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR, (Ochagwu K’Idoma)
13. Hon (Dr) Prince Samuel Onuh

b) Exceptional Service to the Orokam Community by Members:

14. Sir John Onojah, Deputy Director, Federal Civil Service
15. Chief Dr. Barr. Paul Edeh, Chairman, Benue State Football Association

c) Meritorious Upliftment in the Service of the Nation:

16. Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, DG, Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution, Abuja
17. Professor Matthew E. Ogwuche, NOUN, Abuja
18. Architect John Bosco Idoko, Assistant Director, Federal Civil Service
19. ⁠Pharmacist John Ogbodo, Assistant Director, Federal Civil Service
20. ⁠Mr Felix Agbo Ochube, Assistant Commander of the EFCC

d) Professionalism and Meritorious Service unto the Fatherland

21. Mr. Alex M. Agada, Ag. Director-General, Department of State Services
22. Pastor John Okoh, Deputy Director, Federal Civil Service
23. Mr. Christian Abah, Asst. Director, National health Insurance Authority
24. Mr. Paul Okpe, Controller, FRSC
25. Mr. Vincent C. Ochai, Chief personnel Officer, Federal Civil Service
26. Mr. Emmanuel Ochigbo, Officer 1, NSPMC.

Orokam still in Need of Global Succour
Notwithstanding the untiring efforts of the Okam Forum and in spite of the fact that the Orokam people are a highly industrious and an agrarian population who yearly turn out huge quantum of agro-allied products, the area has only the most minimal presence of government. Not even the fact of the community being strategically located at the gateway between the northern and the south-eastern parts of the country has been able to change the narrative!
This leaves the community with no alternative but to aggressively mobilise for self-help, with the Okam Forum leading the way. Current statistics indicate the existence of about 8,000 out-of-school children and a high prevalence of infectious and communicable diseases, which warrant our immediate intervention in the education and health sectors. Specifically, we need to revitalise the St. Joseph’s Primary School, Orokam (the biggest primary school in the community) and the Okam Forum Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (OFMHA) whose challenges have assumed the proportion of an emergency.
St. Joseph’s Primary School, Orokam
Founded almost eighty years ago in 1947 as a citadel of learning by the Roman Catholic Mission, St. Joseph’s Primary School, Orokam, has had the enviable record of having produced hundreds of thousands of men and women who have played and are still playing fundamental roles in the socio-economic and political transformation of Nigeria. Regrettably, however, this school has become a relic of her old self with two of the classroom blocks already completely down, while those standing have become funny structures having partly blown-off roofs, ramshackle walls as well as dismembered desks and benches! Indeed, we have emotion-wracking photographs depicting the sorry state of dilapidation of the existing structures in this hitherto model school! Conservative estimates for the reconstruction of the two classroom blocks and the most modest rehabilitation of the others have been put at a total sum of N49,500,000.00 (Forty-Nine Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira only).

Okam Forum Mutual Health Insurance Scheme
Instituted in 2016 with the objective of providing quality and affordable health services to the people of Orokam and neighbouring communities, the Okam Forum Mutual Health Association (OFMHA) is a National Health Insurance Authority-accredited community-based health insurance scheme floated and operated by the Okam Forum. Located in the premises of the Primary Health Centre, Orokam, the scheme has been attending to the health needs of our people through interventions in the primary and secondary care.
The funding for the scheme by the Okam Forum was later supplemented with cross-subsidies from the National Health Insurance Authority. However, following the establishment of States Health Insurance Agencies about three years ago, the payment of cross subsidies ceased.
The funding constraints arising from these developments have compelled the scheme to dispense with services of the National Youth Service Corps medical doctor, leaving on the ground two medical personnel and two other support staff. Even then, it is only through the astounding philanthropy of three Orokam sons that the Okam Forum has been able to pay the allowances of the staff as well as procure drugs, medicaments
and other basic equipment over these past three years.

With these kind-hearted individuals already fatigued and in order that this laudable scheme will not die off, we are soliciting your support in donations to sustain the scheme in the next two years estimated at the sum of N10,500,000.00 (ten million, five hundred thousand Naira).

Conclusion
The programs and projects of the Orokam Development Forum are funded through annual development levies and monthly subscriptions payable by members and periodic fund-raising to which members and friends of the Forum are invited to contribute.
Thus, we have two cardinal objectives in mind for organising the 2025 Okam Forum Awards and Gala Night. First, we intend to use the platform to appreciate and honour all those personalities, friends of the community and the Orokam Development Forum who had either partaken of our development agenda in the past, or have demonstrated the zeal for doing so. The event is equally serving as an occasion to honour some of our members who had recorded major milestones in their careers.
Secondly, the 2025 Awards and Gala Night is a platform aimed at sharing with friends of the Okam Forum two of our passions, education and health-related matters in our community. As we profoundly appreciate the esteemed presence of our guests at the dinner, we would be equally highly honoured if they partake of our passions by supporting the health of members of our community and efforts to uplift our children through education. In short, we plan to raise funds for the rehabilitation of the badly deteriorated St. Joseph’s Primary School, Orokam and also for the revitalization of the Okam Mutual Health Assurance Scheme, at a total estimated sum of N60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Naira) only.

I cannot end this statement without paying glowing tributes to the current Executive Committee of the Orokam Development Forum for their unrelenting efforts aimed at moving not just the organization, but also the entire Orokam Community to the very next level. It is our fervent hope and prayers that our good Lord Himself will crown your efforts with resounding successes.
Let me also most profoundly appreciate your kind consideration in honouring an invitation to a press briefing by a small media player such as our organization. I wish to assure you that God will surely turn around your fortunes as media practitioners arising from the lives you would have touched through a faithful and elaborate reportage of this briefing.

I thank you and may you all be richly blessed.