Man, disrupts Lagos church wedding, says bride already married

 There was confusion on Saturday at the Great Salvation Christian Centre, aka Father’s Church, on Ako Aro Road, in the Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos State, after a man, Iberemu Osadebe, disrupted an ongoing wedding in the church.

He claimed that the bride, Gloria, was his wife.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Osadebe had a traditional wedding with Gloria after they had a son togther.

He, however, became sick for about five years, during which time he sold most of his property to seek a cure.

The Imo State indigene was said to have later travelled to his hometown in Isiala Mbano, where he continued the treatment.

Our correspondent gathered that he was on the sick bed when he received information that his wife of 20 years would be getting married to another man on Saturday, August 29, 2020.

The 43-year-old was said to have developed high blood pressure, which affected his speech.

He returned to Lagos on Friday, a day to the wedding, and reported his plan to disrupt the wedding at the Agbado Police Station.

Upon arriving in the church around 11am, some of the church leaders, who recognised him, appealed to him to let the matter go, which he rejected.

Some members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, who were said to be colleagues of the new groom, identified as Henry, were also invited to mediate.

Our correspondent, who witnessed the occasion, noted that the church adjusted the wedding programme after sensing the building tension.

Fervent prayers were offered against intruders and plots to interrupt the wedding.

The church’s pastor was about to join the new couple when Osadebe’s family members marched to the pulpit and revealed that the woman was already married and could not be joined in holy wedlock.

Security guards on the premises, however, bundled them out of the church, as pandemonium broke out in the assembly.

The guards later mounted a defence at the church’s entrance, while Osadebe and his family protested and demanded an end to the ceremony.

Osadebe, who spoke to PUNCH Metro amid stutters, said he was shocked that his wife betrayed him.

He 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 my 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 the land I had for N1m, and I 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. They demanded groundnut oil, tubers of yam, among other things, which we valued at N60,000 and paid.”

The former bus driver said when he took ill, he travelled to his hometown for treatment, adding that his wife refused to follow him.

He alleged that while he was sick, his wife called and lamented that she and their son were starving, adding that he instructed that his bus be sold and the proceeds given to Gloria to start a business and pay the son’s school fees.

Osadebe said he was shocked when his relatives called to inform him that his wife was remarrying.