Gideon Meriodere Urhobo

Saint Gideon Meriodere Urhobo (formerly known as Gregory Mogburuko Ukoli) was the founder of God's Kingdom Society (GKS). He served as its life president from its inception in 1934 until his passing in 1952.

Early life and career Gideon Urhobo was born in 1903 at Ogharegi, a small fishing port near the Ethiope River, to a Christian mother and a non-Christian father. He hailed from Agbarha in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. He received his initial education at the Government School in Warri, where he also worked as a teacher. In his early years, he converted to and adhered to strict Roman Catholicism, and was baptized but not confirmed. Later, after disagreeing with certain of the Roman Catholic Church's beliefs, he broke away from the religion. A few months later, in June 1930, he began working for the Post and Telegraph department as a third-class clerk and telegraphist. He saw a South African advertisement for The Watchtower literature while at work. He got the literature and started reading it and his Bible together. In 1932, he met Mr. William Roland Brown in Benin. Mr. Brown was the Trinidadian representative of Watchtower in West Africa. Brown invited him to Lagos so he could buy books for twenty-five dollars on credit. After receiving the books, he sent them to his friends Macauley J. Orode and Gabriel Agbenoma so they could be distributed to the public. Urhobo resigned his position as a clerk in 1933 to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Urhobo and some of his friends split from Watchtower in October 1934 to start his own Society in Lagos, called "the Lagos Division of Jehovah’s Witnesses". From that point on, Urhobo started debating and criticizing Watchtower's beliefs. He also criticized the Muslim faith, and mainline churches—particularly the Roman Catholic Church. he began to deliver a series of lectures entitled, "My Mission to the World", in different parts of Nigeria. Saint Urhobo founded Church branches in Lagos (1934), Port Harcourt (1940), Warri, and Sapele (1942), followed by Onitsha (1946) and Aba (1948).