Rev. Fr. O’Connell died in the early hours of Wednesday, 14th, March, 2018. He was 85 years and was the longest serving school principal in Niger State and Nigeria before he retired and returned home late last year.
He had arrived Nigeria in 1967 as a missionary and first worked as a Catholic Priest in Calabar before he relocated to Niger State where he became the principal of Government Secondary School, Minna. At 84, Fr. O’Connell was still teaching.