Archbishop of Ibadan
Archbishop Gabriel Leke Abegunrin, Archbishop of Ibadan, was born on September 29, 1949, at Iwere-Ile, in Oyo State and in the Diocese of Oyo. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oyo on April 21, 1979, and in 1988 he obtained a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He served as parish priest of St. Ferdinand's Catholic Church in Ogbomosho from 1988 to 1992 and as administrator of St. Benedict's Cathedral in Osogbo from 1992 to 1995, and in those same years he was the Catholic representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Osun State and, from 1993, chaplain of the political awareness committee. On March 3, 1995, he was appointed Bishop of Osogbo. He received episcopal ordination on May 13, 1995, at Osogbo, with Carlo Maria Viganò as principal consecrator and Julius Babatunde Adelakun and Albert Ayinde Fasina as co-consecrators. On March 24, 2000, the federal government of Nigeria appointed him chairman of the peace and reconciliation committee for the Ife and Modakeke crises, and from 2000 to 2004 he was chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria. He has also served as chairman of the lay apostolate organisations of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria. On October 29, 2013, he was appointed Archbishop of Ibadan and Apostolic Administrator of Osogbo, and he was enthroned at Ibadan on January 24, 2014, holding the administration of Osogbo until June 30, 2016. His episcopal motto is Caritas Vincit Omnia, Love conquers all.