Okene

Okene
LGA and city
Okene
Coordinates:
Country	Nigeria
State	Kogi State
Area
• Total	328 km2 (127 sq mi)
Population (2006 Census)
• Total	320,260
Time zone	WAT (UTC+1)
3-digit postal code prefix	264
ISO 3166 code	NG.KO.ON

Okene is a Local Government Area and city in Kogi State, Nigeria based at the town of Okene on the A2 highway.

The LGA has an area of 328 km² and a population of 320,260 at the 2006 census.

The postal code of the area is 264.

The predominant people are the Ebira of central Nigeria and the Yoruba; the local languages are Ebira and Yoruba

People

Okene is the birthplace of American Hockey League player and National Hockey League prospect Akim Aliu. It is also a home to Dr. Ibrahim Salau, a world-class aviation engineer. As an aviation engineer, Dr. Salau has worked for such aviation and related industries as B/E Aerospace in Jacksonville, Florida; Delta Airlines in Atlanta Georgia; Sikorski Aircraft in Connecticut, Atlas Air in New York and now Bombardier Aerospace in Montreal Canada. While in this position he has worked on Boeing 727, B737, B757, B767, B777, Blackhawk and Seahawk helicopters as well as the Bombardier all new CSeries aircraft. Another prominent Nigerian that hails from Okene is Engineer Joseph Makoju, the former managing director of the power Holding Company of Nigeria and currently the Honorary Adviser to Mr. President on Electric Power and the Honorary Adviser to the President/CEO Dangote Group on Strategies.

Education

The Federal College of Education is situated in Okene. There is also a satellite campus of the Kogi State Polythecnic.

History

Okene Local Government Area was created in 1976 from the then Ebira Division by the Administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo, following the 1976 Local Government Reform. Ajaokuta and Ogori-Magongo LGAs were created from the old Okene LGA in 1991 and 1996 respectively. The people of Okene Local Government Area are a part of Ebira Tao people of the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State.

They are believed to have migrated from Jukun in the present day Taraba State and had a brief stopover in Idah before moving to its present location. The present Okene LGA is composed of Okene and Okengwe districts. There are 11 wards in the Local Government which are Bariki, Otutu, Orietesu, Lafia/Obessa, Okene-Eba, Idoji, Onyukolo, Obehira-Eba, Obehira-Uvete, Abuga/Ozuja and Upogoro/Odenku wards. The people are predominantly Muslims with a large size of Christian population too. To a great extent, there is a fusion of tradition and religions with only a negligible few still practicing exclusively traditional religion.