Her Excellency, Dr. Ipalibo Gogo Banigo, Rivers State Deputy Governor
Dr. Ipalibo Gogo Banigo, 62, is a medical doctor turned politician. She is Rivers State’s first female Deputy Governor. During her service in the state Ministry of Health, she assumed the positions of Director of Public Health Services, acting commissioner, director general and permanent secretary. She was onetime Secretary to the Government of Rivers State before serving as Head of Service. In December 2014, Governor Nyeson Wike selected her as his running mate in the 2015 election. She was elected Deputy Governor and assumed office on 29 May 2015.
Banigo attended Queen’s College Yaba, Lagos between 1964 and December 1968 and returned to the same institution from 1969 to 1970 for her higher school certificate. She obtained Division One in her West African School Certificate Examination in 1968 and distinction in the Higher School Certificate in 1970.
She obtained the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and qualified as a medical doctor in June 1976 from the University of Ibadan, University College Hospital.
Banigo was in Harvard University School of Public Health and obtained a Master of Public Health degree in June 1981. She also attended the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she obtained a post-graduate diploma in Tropical Hygiene (D.I.H) in 1990. She capped these with a Diploma in Dermatology again from London University in July 1992.