Catholic Bishop of Lokoja withdraws the ordination certificates of four deacons and suspends their teaching authority due to forgery

The Catholic Bishop of Lokoja, Most Reverend Martin Olorunmolu, has ordered the withdrawal of the deaconry certificates issued to four men because of forged documents.

The four men who were falsely presented for ordination as deacons were: Aloysius Kubiatabasi Ebong, Francis Mario Daudu, Nkemaka Charles Chukwudi and Emmanuel Chukwudum Ezeh.

In a decree seen by our correspondent, Bishop Olorunmolu decreed that the men should not be recognised by any ecclesiastical or other authority, including civil ones.

The decree signed by Bishop Olorunmolu and Rev. Augustine Okafor confirmed that the four men were ordained deacons on July 12 this year at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Lokoja, at the request of a certain “Rev. Stephen Obioma Nwaigwe,” who introduced himself to the bishop as the “superior general” of a religious institute he called the “Paraclete Missionaries.”

Pastor Olorunmolu, however, said he was deceived with the help of forged documents.

“I have ensured that all canonical requirements for ordination have been met to ensure that I ordain only qualified and worthy candidates for the Church.

“However, I was deceived. The so-called ‘Superior General’, Father Stephen Obioma Nwaigwe, gave me false information. He also gave me fake documents to make some claims which turned out to be false. For example, he showed me a fake document to claim that the ‘Paraclete Missionaries’ were duly established as a religious institute.

“I discovered that he used the ‘Decree of Ecclesiastical Approval’ for the ‘Missionaries of Jesus the Redeemer’ (also known as ‘Jesolites’) based in the Diocese of Mogorogo in Tanzania, East Africa, to create a fake ‘Decree of Ecclesiastical Approval’ for the ‘Paraclete Missionaries’ by replacing the true name ‘Missionaries of Jesus the Redeemer’ with the name ‘Paraclete Missionaries’.

“Shortly after the deacon ordination ceremony, it was discovered that one of the candidates, Aloysius Kubiatabasi Ebong, had posed as a Catholic priest and even ‘celebrated’ masses at the military barracks in Lokoja prior to the ordination,” he said.

Because of so many untruths, Bishop Olorunmolu ordered that all powers associated with her office as a deacon be suspended with immediate effect.

The bishop expressed optimism that Rome would take further steps in this matter as a result of his report.