Uma Ukpai Plans World’s Largest Church Auditorium

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

The Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Association is set for a groundbreaking ceremony of a church auditorium that can seat 120,000 worshippers in Ohafia LGA of Abia State. Designed in the frame of an indoor stadium, the auditorium is projected to be the largest church auditorium in the world per Wikipedia criteria.

The auditorium will be built within the proposed “Uma Ukpai Prayer City”, the project architects, Abuja based Devinci Consulting, said. The designers confirmed via a statement that the auditorium is projected to be completed in 36 months, taking into account what they termed “foreign logistics”.

The Uma Ukpai Prayer City will be his largest single project. The architects state that it will host not only the church auditorium but also event centres, meeting rooms, a clinic, 3 helipads, a petrol station, a hotel, offices and diverse parking lots.

Its media managers, Jabborro PR, forecasts that this project alone will generate hundreds of jobs and create a medium sized local economy in Ohafia.

“Rev. Uma Ukpai is one of Nigeria’s foremost Christian preachers and one of global acclaim. This is one man of God who has preached the gospel for over 50 years, with so many testimonies following his ministry. With this project, his annual conferences will finally have a suitable home, besides the number of jobs we expect to create with this alone”, the statement reads.

Rev. Ukpai is popularly known as a founding father of the organized Pentecostal movement in West Africa, an evangelist who has not founded any church, but maintains a travelling evangelical ministry. Other than his itinerant preaching schedule, he does hold a weekly meeting in his fellowship headquarters in Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Wednesdays.

It was further explained that the Prayer City will be a memorial legacy of the evangelical ministry of preacher Rev. Ukpai. Over 15 hectares of land had been acquired for this project and contract for the construction had been awarded to the duo of Uhuru Global Construction Company and Habitat Universal Concept.

The ground breaking event is slated for Friday September 2, 2022 at the site of the project. Besides being a preacher, Rev. Ukpai has built several colleges in Nigeria and Ghana.