History of Parish

Unlike most parishes of today, Christ the King Catholic Church Okene went through stages of development until the Church which now constitutes CKC Parish came into being.

History has it that, Rev. Fr. Zappa an SMA Priest from Asaba who visited Okene in 1915 was unable to accomplish his mission to establish a Church and School in the land.

He was welcomed as an individual and as a Priest but his mission was not granted.

He was believed to be a Portuguese slave dealer and so the request was turned down by Atta Omadivi and his consortium.

By 1971, Atta Ibrahim has been installed as the ruler of Ebiraland. When Fr. Zeminati came also from Asaba, he had the consents of Atta Ibrahim to establish Church and School. Fr. Zeminati was given a piece of land near Okene Centre market where he started the church but the place later became Atta’s Palace. Fr. Zeminati after sometime left his catechist, Mr. Leo at Okene to continue with the evangelical work while he resided in Lokoja and paid weekly visit to Okene. With the initial support of the Atta, Catechist Leo made a lot of progress particularly with non-natives who quickly imbibed the faith.

At a point, the Atta felt that Charity should begin at home. Hence, Late Sule Onivo was brought to assist the priest and the catechist. Sule was Baptized and named Patrick; then others like Pa James Ojiah and notable leaders whose children were baptized and confirmed.

All the co-operation and support from Atta Ibrahim came to a halt when he observed that the church members had more allegiance to the Priest and the catechist then was given to him.

In addition, the increasing number of men and women attending the church was not two pleasant to him. He felt threatened. The church members consequently faced some persecutions attack by masquerades at odd times, burning of their houses etc, this scared some members who deserted the church.

Catechist Leo was forced to go to operate at Magongo and Oka, while Fr. Zeminati went back to stay in Lokoja. By 1925 Fr. O. Cornel, an Irish priest was in Okene to continue from where Fr. Zeminati stopped.

He was followed by Fr. Bamicol who was in Okene as a visiting priest.

While many ran away from the church, Pa James Ojiah remained steadfast.

In 1926 he was appointed by the LGA and that gave him the opportunity to start preaching to the people.

Pa Ojiah was retired because of his commitment to the church activities.

Late Emmanuel Aworuwor from Oka, George Ajayi Balogun, Michael Ogido and A. S. Otonoku jointly worked as catechists in various capacities and at different times.

Thereafter, in spite of all the persecutions the Church/Parish which then covered so many areas continued to record gradual development.

By Late 50s’ to early 60s’ new parishes began to be created.

These included Osisi, Okengwe and Enyinare Parishes.

Osisi was headed by Rev. Fr. Guy Mallete while Okengwe and St. Joseph’s Parish, Enyinare were the brain children of Bishop Makozi.

Bishop A. O. Makozi and very Rev. Joseph Ohieku were the first to be ordained Priests in the Parish in December 1961.

Previous Priests