In 1932, His Lordship, Bishop Shanahan, transferred Rev. Fr. James Mellet from Ogoja to Nsukka to become the first Catholic Parish Priest of Nsukka. As at that time, Nsukka was more extensive in area than the present Nsukka Diocese, because it included the eight communities of Ayamelum now in Anambra State, Odoru and Akpanya now in Kogi State.
The creation of the new Parish out of Eke Parish was the culmination of over two decades of hard labour and toil by Christian missionaries, mostly from Ireland, to evangelize this vastly populated area of the most northern Igbo communities that eventually became the Diocese of Nsukka.
