It was drama on Saturday at the Great Salvation Christian Centre on Ayo Road, Ifako-Ijaye, Lagos when a man and his family stormed in and disrupted wife’s’ wedding to another man
Iberemu Osadebe insisted that the bride with whom he had a son was his wife. The couple had a traditional wedding.
Speaking about how and why he married his wife Gloria, Osadebe said: “I was in a relationship with my wife for 20 years, we had a child together in 2011.
“My mother objected to our union because she is not from our tribe but I said I loved her.
“When my mother died and I wanted to travel for the burial, my wife said she would not follow us because it is a taboo in her tradition for a woman whose bride price has not been paid to go on such a journey. She also refused to release my son.
“When I got to the Village, the elders were angry that I did not come with my wife and son as my mother’s first child. They fined me N40,000. After that disgrace, I vowed to pay her bride price.
“I immediately sold my land for N1 million and sent N500,000 to her account to keep for the purpose. In 2017, we went to her family and paid N280,000 for the bride price in Uromi, Edo State.
“They demanded groundnut oil, tubers of yam, among other things, which we valued at N60,000 and paid.
Family members said that Osadebe took ill afterwards, has been bed-ridden for about five years and Gloria, his wife, refused to go with him. He sold most of his belongings to seek a cure. When all efforts failed in Lagos, he travelled to his village to continue his treatment.
According to him, while in the village, his wife called to lament that his son and herself were starving. He therefore instructed that his bus be sold and the proceeds given to her to start a business that should take care of their upkeep.
He said he was shocked to get a message from a relative about Gloria’s planned wedding with another man. He added, however, that he will let her go because of his love for her but she must hand over his son and refund his bride price.
Osadebe’s brother, Ikere said that Gloria’s planned marriage to another man worsened his health condition as “it was after he discovered that his wife was getting married to another that he partially lost his speech and started to stammer.
“He was pained that a woman he loved so much betrayed him, it is unfair. A man sold his land, vehicle and other property, and yet you’re not satisfied,” Ikere said.
Ebube Evans, the wife of the founder of the church, venue of the wedding stated that the couple visited about 2 years ago to seek healing for Osadebe’s paralysis. Gloria later told her that her husband stopped coming to church after his condition improved.
In her account of the developments, Ebube said that: “After a while, the woman complained to me that the man had started selling their property. We later discovered that the man was using her to beg for alms at Ogba Bus Stop. The money she made was what they were using to survive.
“After a while, she complained that the man used the little she made from the alms to drink and smoke at a joint.”
Evans said that when the church confronted him, he sold the rest of his property and relocated to the village. “For the period he was away, nobody asked after the woman or her child. We fed her and sent the boy to school.”
She added that Gloria once became very ill and needed surgery which was paid for by the church. They were also sent packing from their rented house after owing two years’ rent. “I gave her one room in my flat. Nobody gave us anything. Would you say the marriage was still on, when you didn’t value the woman and her child ?
“The woman is an orphan … When this young man (Henry) showed up and said he wanted to carry her, I was happy for her knowing the church’s burden would reduce.”
Evans also said that “the woman suffered with him (Osadebe) when he was completely incapacitated. Whenever he soiled his body, the woman cleaned him up and bore all the pains. None of his family members showed her love after he left. And now, they want to Destroy her new marriage. Is that not wickedness ?
She said that when the remarriage came up, Osadebe demanded a divorce, the court divorced them and served Evans the letter.
He returned to Lagos on Friday, a day to the wedding and reported his intention to disrupt the wedding at the Agabdo Police Station.
When he arrived the church at about 11:00am on Saturday, some of the church elders who recognised him pleaded with him to let the matter be but he insisted.
Members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers who are colleagues of the new husband also tried to mediate, but failed.
The wedding program was amended after the pastor sensed the mounting tension. The church then went into a fervent prayer session against intruders and plots to disrupt the wedding.
Pandemonium broke out when the Pastor made to start the ceremony and Osadebe’s family marched to the pulpit to insist the bride was their wife and therefore, must not be joined with anyone else.
Security men bundled them all out and mounted guard on the entrance while they continued to protest and demanded an end to the wedding.
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