The practice is that the process of selecting and consecrating a successor commences immediately after a bishop is out. In this instance, the process became so slow that even the ordinary man in the street got to know that “something was definitely wrong” in the house of God. For more than two years, the Holy See was unable to announce a successor to the late Bishop Chikwe.
Mbaise monarch, Eze Desmond Oguguo, a Catholic, used every opportunity available to him to plead that a bishop be appointed for the diocese. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI, on Friday, December 7, 2012, announced Monsignor Peter Ebere Okpalaeke, a priest from Awka Diocese, Anambra State, as the Bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese.
Apart from the appointment being a shocker to priests of the diocese, members of the laity keyed into the stout objection raised by the priests. They were unanimous in asking the Holy See to reverse the appointment of Okpalaeke. This was not reversed, while the laity, propelled by their priests, never re-considered their stand on rejecting Okpalaeke as their bishop.