Celebrating Ndi-Igbo

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ngozi Conchita Braide is the first female Lagos Police Command Public Relations Officer, PPRO. She joined the Nigeria Police in 1996 as a Cadet Inspector and has attended several professional courses both within and outside Nigeria. She was part of the United Nations Peace Keeping Operation in Liberia in 2006 where she was appointed the head of Finance Unit of the United Nations Police in Liberia. There, she earned a commendation award for devotion to duty and hardwork. Ngozi also served with International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL between 1999 – 2003. While at INTERPOL, she was also attached to Organized Crime Division, OCD. From 2007, she worked at Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and Special Fraud Unit. While at the SFU, she was attached to Commercial Fraud Unit and later she rose to become the Sectional head of Oil and Gas Fraud Section. Ngozi who hails from Imo State is  a graduate of English from the Lagos State University.

One to watch Chioma Amaechi is a member of the USA's female Weightlifting team for the 2012 Olympic games in London. She’s the top junior female (20-and-under) in the country according to USA Weightlifting. Born in San Fransico, Chioma attends UC Berkeley where she studies History and Education. 22 year old Chioma who began weightlifting in 2009 and will compete in the +75 weight class.

One to watch Paul started his professional acting career at the age of 16, as an extra in harry potter and the goblet of fire. He went on to study performing arts at NewVic college, also joining east London's Theatre Royal putting on performances such as conflictions. Paul got his first big role in the Feature turned Short Stick With Me, giving Paul the resources to open up his own performing arts company ZEMS. Paul will feature in Brash Young Turks, an expected blockbuster about several young people who collide as they struggle to deal with issues of greed, deception, money and power in an attempt to pursue their dreams. We think he is one to watch.

Mr. Prosper Nwankpa Co-Founded iVentster, Inc. and serves as its Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Nwankpa oversees the software development unit and directs his team in building highly available scaleable systems. Under he aegis of his software architectural genuis, his team has built the infrastructure behind Peanut Labs™ unique sampling technology. He began his IT career in the early days of social media. Prior to Peanut Labs™, he co-founded, designed and built XuQa.com, a social network application, a competitor to MySpace, that grew to support a user base of more than 2 million monthly users and 500 million monthly page views. In addition to his love of computers and software, he served as President of the Williams Institute of Technology (WIT) from 2002 to 2004, where he mentored aspiring web engineers. During his tenure, his team built a suite of applications that were immediately put to use by various departments of the college. He served as a Director of iVentster, Inc.

One to watch Chioma was born in Nigeria and came to London at the age of seven. She started her writing career as a poet before turning her hand to fiction. Her writing has been published in Bum Rush The Page and The Callaloo Literary Journal. Additionally, her work has been shortlisted in the Undiscovered Authors Competition 2006, run by Bookforce UK, and in the Daily Telegraph's Write a Novel in a Year Competition in 2007.  BITTER LEAF, Virago Press June 27, 2010,  was her first novel.

Victor Olisa is a Chief Superintendent with the London Metropolitan Police and the the first black commander for Bexley local council in London. Olisa, 52, is one of the three chief superintendents from black minority ethnic background working for the Metropolitan Police. He started his career in Surrey Police in 1982 before transferring to the City of London Police in 1990 as detective inspector in the Fraud Squad. After a spell at the Home Office, he transferred to the Metropolitan police in 2006 as a superintendent in Southwark Council before his recent appointment.

Catherine Ugwu is co-director of the Live Art Development Agency, London and joint artistic director of Keidan/Ugwu, an organization concerned with developing and positioning new performance work. Ms. Ugwu formerly served as deputy director of Live Arts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (1991-1997). She is currently combined arts and drama advisor for The Arts Council of England and London Arts Board; board chair of the Talawa Theater Company; and board chair of the Showroom Gallery, London. She frequently organizes and contributes to national and international conferences, seminars and debates. Catherine Ugwu got into "live arts" production working at the ICA in the nineties, and has been involved in performance arts ever since. The Millennium Dome opening was probably her first solo work - which brought her into contact with Mark Fisher. She went on to produce the opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002, the 2006 ...