Aba Nigeria Temple
Encyclopedia
The Aba Nigeria Temple is the 121st operating temple
Temple (LDS Church)
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...

 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An announcement was made on April 2, 2000 that a Mormon temple would be built in Aba
Aba, Nigeria
Aba is a city and a big trading center in Abia State, southern Nigeria, located on the Aba River. Aba was established by the Igbo People of Nigeria as a market town and then later a military post was placed there by the British colonial administration in 1901...

, in the state of Abia
Abia State
Abia State is a state in southeastern Nigeria. The capital is Umuahia, although the major commercial city is Aba, formerly a British colonial government outpost. The state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State and its citizens are predominantly Igbo people...

, to serve the nation's 68,000 Latter-day Saints. This temple was the third temple to be built in Africa. The highly visible temple site is 6.3 acres (25,495.2 m²) on the outskirts of Aba along the Ogbor River. A bridge had to be built over the river to provide access to the temple.

A groundbreaking ceremony and site dedication was held on February 23, 2002. More than 2,000 people were present at the ceremony including Mormon members, Church leaders, tribal chiefs from the area, and government leaders. Construction began soon after the site dedication. An open house was held from June 18 to July 2, 2005 to allow people to tour the inside of the temple and learn about the ceremonies performed inside Mormon temples.

On Saturday August 6, 2005, the day before the temple was dedicated, a celebration was held, recounting the story of the area through song and dance. President of the LDS Church, Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death...

, dedicated the Aba Nigeria Temple on August 7, 2005. More than 7,000 people were present for the dedication.

The Aba Nigeria Temple has a total floor area of 11500 square feet (1,068.4 m²), two ordinance rooms, and two sealing rooms. The outer walls are made of Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

n pearl granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

.

Closing

The temple has been closed since mid June, 2009, because of violence in the Aba area.

The closing and evacuation followed mid-June gunfire in the area around the temple. In an e-mail to the Ogden
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...

 Standard-Examiner
Ogden Standard-Examiner
The Standard-Examiner is a daily morning newspaper published in Ogden, Utah. With 63,000 subscribers, it is the third largest daily newspaper in terms of circulation in the State of Utah after the Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret Morning News...

 a Nigeria temple worker reported an incident in which four gunmen were seen carrying AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...

s, with shooting reported in the area around the temple. Bullets from the shooting struck the guardhouse on the temple grounds.

Additionally, the city of Aba and its Nigerian state of Abia have seen a marked increase in reported kidnappings this year, including the 2007 kidnapping of four missionaries
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 near Port Harcourt.

When asked about the reason for closing of the temple, LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said, "The safety of our temple visitors and workers is always our first concern. Incidents of violence in recent months in the area where the temple is situated are not necessarily related to the temple but could put church members at risk."

See also


External links

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