Remember me
NEWLY elected Mayor of Galway Helen Ogbu has deleted her website, which had contradicted interviews she gave about her life when she arrived in Ireland.
Labour councillor Ms Ogbu claimed that she came to Ireland with her family in 2006 ‘seeking safety and a fresh start after the tragic loss of my husband’.
However, Ms Ogbu’s husband was assassinated in 2010, not 2006.
The Mail repeatedly contacted Ms Ogbu and the Labour Party on Friday evening about the discrepancy but received no response. On Saturday, the website was taken down.
On Monday evening, after further repeated contact from the Mail, the Labour Party said that the information was ‘incorrect’ but occurred during an ‘editing error’.
‘The wording on Councillor Helen Ogbu’s website was incorrect and arose from an editing error during a previous update. Councillor Ogbu only recently became aware of the mistake. She is currently unable to access the website to correct it, but it will be amended as soon as access is restored,’ the party said.
The statement from Labour also stated that Ms Ogbu arrived in Galway in 2005, not 2006.
On her official website, Ms Ogbu stated: ‘In 2006, my family and I moved to Ireland seeking safety and a fresh start after the tragic loss of my husband.
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik with Galway Helen Ogbu, Conor Sheehan and Aodhán Ó Riordáin
‘Since then, Galway has become my home, and I’ve dedicated myself to giving back to the community that welcomed us. I have spent over 18 years volunteering, mentoring, and advocating for social justice, women’s rights, and mental health.’
The website was created in January 2025 and the earliest version of the site from May 2025 shows the erroneous account of her arrival here in place.
The Mail subsequently asked when this edit took place. A review of archived material online shows the claim about coming to Ireland in 2006 after the death of her husband was on the website going back to 2025.
In response, a Labour spokeswoman said: ‘As outlined in our earlier response, there was a mistake on her personal website.
‘Far-right and anti-migrant online commentators are using that mistake to now question her status and story.
‘However, as publicly documented in many sources, her husband was assassinated in 2010. As Helen and the party digital team didn’t have edit access to the source page to correct it, the site was temporarily taken down until it could be corrected.’
Ms Ogbu, who performed strongly in last month’s by-election in Galway West, officially became Mayor of Galway last week. She made history as she became the first African woman to hold the title of Galway’s first citizen, and is the 72nd person to hold the title.
In recent media interviews with RTÉ and The Sunday Times, Ms Ogbu has spoken about her late husband Sunny Ogbu’s political assassination in 2010.
In a recent interview on RTÉ’s Today With David McCullagh, Mr McCullagh asked: ‘What brought you to Galway, what led you to leave Nigeria, was tragedy?’
Ms Ogbu responded: ‘Yes, it was. Yes. What brought me... tragedy happened after I had settled in Galway.
‘But there were some issues that were happening unfolding before the final tragedy. Before my husband was killed, he was a politician, he was into politics, and there were some issues, and it was unsafe. He was assassinated in 2010.’
In an interview with The Sunday Times in the run-up to the by-election, it was reported that her husband died in 2010. The report said: ‘In 2010, Sunny Ogbu was poised to make a big announcement about plans to run for the People’s Democratic Party in Nigeria in the country’s national assembly.
‘The day before his announcement, he spotted what he thought were stranded locals on the roadside. They were waving for help, and despite his driver’s reservations, they pulled over. In fact, it was a team of suspected hired assassins.’
Ms Ogbu declined to speak with the Mail yesterday, despite several requests for comment in recent days. While she declined to comment when the Mail called to her door, she did do an interview with Síle Seoige on her podcast on Monday, which Ms Ogbu promoted on her Instagram.
Ms Ogbu has been the subject of intense criticism online from far-right and racist agitators. During the by-election, a spokesman for Labour said they had assigned one staff member to review and delete racist comments. The party said 40% of the work of the staff member is ‘blocking racist abuse and commentary on Meta platforms’.
At least two media reports from Nigeria confirm that Ms Ogbu’s husband, as she confirmed to Mr McCullagh, was assassinated in 2010. One report from Vanguard, a Nigerian publication, wrote: ‘Nze Sunny Orji Ogbu, who was aspiring to represent the area in the National Assembly, was murdered by suspected assassins.’
The iNigerian.com site also ran a column about the killing.
A story on the website said: ‘We are all struggling to come to terms with the sad reality that Nze is no more.’