OGOJA, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE of. — In the southeastern part of Nigeria entrusted to the Society of St Patrick for the Foreign Missions (Ireland). It was erected on 13 March 1938 with territory detached from the apostolic prefecture (now diocese) of Calabar.
It covers approximately 19,500 sq km and in 1950 had a population of approximately 750,000 inhabitants, of whom 13,026 were Catholics and 12,200 catechumens; the Protestants numbered only a few thousand, and the remainder were pagans. There were 23 foreign priests, 12 foreign sisters, 3 minor seminarians educated in the Seminary of the diocese of Calabar, 616 male catechists and 10 female catechists, 595 male teachers and 10 female teachers, 2 doctors and 35 nurses; 8 principal and 225 secondary mission stations, 24 churches and 201 chapels; 1 hospital, 8 leper villages, and 235 schools.