50 Bishops To Grace Funeral

More than 50 bishops as well as 1,000 priests will witness the funeral of late Archbishop Albert Obiefuna, the former President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria(CBCN).

Rev. George Admike, the Personal Assistant to the Archbishop of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese, Valerian Okeke, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Onitsha, Anambra.

Obiefuna, 81, a retired Archbishop of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese, would be buried on June 21 at the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha.

Admike said arrangement for the hosting of the clerics and other dignitaries had reached advanced stage while strategies for crowd control were being mapped out.

“We are expecting revered people from all over the world including the Vatican City delegation,” he added.

Admike, who noted that Obiefuna stood out among his peers, further said: “Obiefuna’s most outstanding achievements included building of the Blessed Iwene Tansi Seminary, Onitsha, as well as founding the Blessed Pope John Paul II Major Seminary, Awka.

“As President of CBCN, he successfully hosted the second visit of the Blessed Pope John Paul II to Nigeria in 1998 for the beatification of Blessed Iwene Tansi,” he said.

Details of the burial programme made available to NAN indicated that on June 18, a requiem mass would hold at St. Patrick Cathedral, Awka.