By Fr. OKHUELEIGBE OSEMHANTIE ÃMOS

It has been a day of long expectation, solemn anticipation and profound emotion, as Benin City finally receives the mortal remains of her departed Metropolitan Archbishop, Most Rev. Augustine Obiora Akubeze, whose earthly pilgrimage came to its close on July 9, 2026, leaving behind a Church, a city and a people wrapped in grief, gratitude and prayer.

At exactly 1:00 p.m. Nigerian time, the aircraft carrying his remains touched down at the Benin Airport. For a moment, the airport seemed to stand still. The ordinary rhythm of arrivals and departures yielded to the extraordinary solemnity of a homecoming. This was no ordinary arrival. It was the return of a shepherd to the land over which he had once presided as Metropolitan Archbishop; the return of a father to a people who had called him their own; the return of a son of the Nigerian Church to the soil that had witnessed his ministry, his laughter, his labours, his generosity and his episcopal service.

Already waiting at the airport was a magnificent ecclesial and civic assembly: brother bishops and members of the episcopal retinue, a colonade of priests, a procession of religious men and women, the distinguished League of Knights, military and paramilitary formations, and some lay faithful who had gathered to accompany their Archbishop on the final stage of his earthly journey. Greatly symbolic was the presence of the Governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Their presence transformed the airport from a place of transit into a sacred threshold, a vestibule of remembrance where grief met gratitude and farewell became prayer.

The solemnity of the moment was unmistakable. The vestments, uniforms, insignia, banners and ecclesiastical regalia formed a living tapestry of the Church and society he served. Bishops stood beside priests; religious beside the laity; knights beside soldiers; men and women of every station gathered around the mortal remains of one who, in life, had belonged to them all. Benin City was not merely receiving a body; she was receiving back a chapter of her own recent ecclesial history.

With his arrival, the funeral rites have now entered a new and deeply significant phase. The journey that began with his death is gradually becoming a great liturgical procession of memory, prayer and thanksgiving. At 5:00 p.m. today, Masses will be celebrated across the parishes and communities of the Archdiocese of Benin City, united in prayer for the repose of his soul. From parish churches to religious communities, from cathedral precincts to humble chapels, the Eucharistic table will become the spiritual meeting point of a people mourning their shepherd.

•Fr. Dr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie Ãmos is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Uromi and a Lecturer at CIWA, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.