The Aokpe Apparitions: Our Lady of Aokpe, Mediatrix of All Graces

Aokpe is a small village about 7 km from Ugbokolo, in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue State, in Nigeria's Middle Belt. In 1992 it lay within the Diocese of Makurdi, under Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh. Christiana Inegbu Agbo was twelve, the ninth of ten children in a devout Catholic farming family. She could not read or write.

October 1992. Christiana was gathering herbs in the cassava fields. One account places it at about 10:00 am. After seeing signs of light, she looked up. A beautiful woman was floating in the sky, standing on the clouds. Her veil shone blue. Her hands were clasped on her chest around a rosary. Her sister Felicia and her niece Ada were with her. They saw nothing.

Christiana waited several days before speaking to the figure. It said: "I am the Blessed Mother, I will come again to reveal what I want of you." Her first message ran: "I am the refuge of sinners. I come from Heaven to gain souls to Christ." Later messages urged the Rosary and warned of "the time of great darkness."

3 August 1994 brought the first public pilgrimage. The next day had been foretold as a Special Day of Grace. Fr. Samuel Ehatikpo made sure two photographers were present. Fr. Emmanuel Ojaje Idoko, sent by Bishop Usuh, came with cameras and audio recorders and stayed close to Christiana.

She described what only she could see. "I saw the Angel bringing the Host, and the Host was bigger than the one we normally receive. The closer the Host came to me, the smaller the Host became, and when I was about to receive it, it became normal size." The crowd saw a Host appear on her tongue. The moment was photographed.

The public phase ran until May 1996. Devotional accounts speak of thousands, even tens of thousands, with one claiming up to 70,000. On 30 July 1995, Christiana and her companions reportedly saw the sun spin, emitting rays of different colours, for about an hour. One account counts eight such solar miracles, in which the sun appeared to dance.

On 4 November 1995, Sr. Mary Rita Abang attended with other sisters. The sky displayed many beautiful colours. Their white habits seemed to change colour with it. On 21 November 1995, Archbishop Ganaka reportedly witnessed an apparition before thousands.

The Church's first reaction was hostile. The parish priest, an English missionary, publicly rebuked Christiana and blamed an evil spirit. The family was shunned and visits to the site were banned. Christiana underwent psychiatric examinations and intensive questioning by clergy, the sceptical priest among them. They found the messages theologically sound. Archbishop John Onaiyekan permitted a shrine while stressing caution. In 1999 Bishop Fidelis Orgah of the new Diocese of Otukpo approved the apparitions and authorised pilgrimages. There has been no Vatican approval.

Not everyone accepted it. In 2011 Bro Anene Nwachukwu told the Daily Trust that the spirit appearing as the Virgin Mary was "a seducing spirit from anti-Christ". No formal hoax finding exists. No police, scientific or press investigation has surfaced. Dancing sun reports at Marian sites are often put down to afterimages and crowd expectation, though no one has applied that to Aokpe by name.

Even the ending is uncertain. Sources date the last apparition to 1998 or 2004. Some say Christiana became a Carmelite nun. The most recent account says she is married with three children. A grotto was later built in the fields where it all began.