Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla was on Monday night appointed as the 24th Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) by President Bola Tinubu to succeed Vice Admiral Auwal Zubairu Gambo, the 23rd CNS.
Rear Admiral Ogalla, NN/1725 was born on 20th of December, 1968 in Enugu Ezike, Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Until his appointment, he was the Director Lessons Learnt at NHQ (PPLANS).
He is a member of 39 Regular Course of the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) and also the second-ever Chief of Naval Staff of Igbo extraction after the 12th CNS.
He obtained his WASSCE from the NMS Zaria in June 1987 where he graduated as the best student in Sciences, scoring A1 in eight subjects.
He graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and was awarded Sword of Honour as the best naval cadet in his course.
Commissioned S Lt on 16th of September 1992, and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral in 2021.
The highly revered officer completed the STC NNS QUORRA, Basic Hydrography National Hydrographic School India in May 2000, Junior and Senior Staff Courses AFCSC Jaji in 2001 and 2006 respectively.
He was a participant of NDC Course 22 and was awarded fdc on August 14. As part of the Course, he took part in the MSc Strategic Studies programme, University of Ibadan from 2014 to 2015.
He served on board of many ships including NNS AMBE, ARADU, LANA, EKUN, AGU, QUORRA, BEECROFT, DELTA and PATHFINDER.
The new naval chief also served as instructor, CI and Comdt NNHS, SO 1 Survey and DD Instruments NNHO, ADCP, DD Hydro and DPR NHQ, as well as DS/ DARAS NDC and D Audit NASS at the national headquarters, NHQ.