Posted by By LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja on
The first hint that there was more to what some people initially saw as an ordinary wedding was the heavy presence of policemen. This was followed by the storming of the Wuse 2 branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) venue of the wedding between Rev. Sam Tugba and Miss Lizzy Madugu by the family of the bride with the sole aim of halting the wedding.
•Wife's family say he eloped with ‘our daughter'
The first hint that there was more to what some people initially saw as an ordinary wedding was the heavy presence of policemen. This was followed by the storming of the Wuse 2 branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) venue of the wedding between Rev. Sam Tugba and Miss Lizzy Madugu by the family of the bride with the sole aim of halting the wedding.
The policemen were on duty ostensibly to cordon off the area and prevent the Madugus from Bassa in Kogi State from gaining entry into the church. They successfully did that keeping the bride's mother, Mrs. Phibi Madugu and her other children away while the daughter was joined in holy wedlock with Tugba, a senior pastor of the ECWA Church.
"Abomination!," the dissatisfied family members screamed, attracting passers-by and some invited guests to the wedding. Effectively checked from gaining entry into the church, the Madugus said they neither had knowledge of the wedding nor were privy to it. The bridegroom, they claimed, did not pay any bride price on the bride and did not seek or obtain the consent of the family before going ahead to wed their daughter.
The bridegroom and pastor, they further alleged, eloped with their daughter only to reappear later for the wedding. Mrs. Madugu, the octogenarian mother of the bride said the family had every reason to suspect something "evil" about the union between her daughter and Pastor Tugba who was said to have pastored the Wuse 2 branch of the ECWA Church for over 20 years, contending that her daughter could not ordinarily be engaged in a wedding in which members of her family were locked out.
The woman, who said she single-handed brought up her children having lost her husband in the 1970s, expressed strong conviction that the groom, an ordained priest of God, was under a strange influence.
"There is no known man of God who would do a thing like this," she told the newsmen, pointing at the church where her daughter was being wedded.
Surrounded by her other children, Mrs. Madugu queried: 'How on earth can somebody who calls himself a pastor take somebody's daughter to the alter for wedding without paying the traditional dowry on her as well as obtaining the consent of her family?"
She quoted from the scriptures and other religious books to underscore the importance of parental consent before any marriage could be contracted, describing it as an honour due to parents:
'Parental consent must be carefully and prayerfully sought before going ahead for the wedding. It is an honour due unto the parents. When you honour them this way, it has a way of securing long life according to God's promise. Their agreement and disagreement may also act as a confirmation of the will of God and the timing of God for your marriage even if they are unbelievers."
When the news of the planned wedding filtered through to the family, she said they quickly protested in writing to the head as well as other leaders of the ECWA Church, drawing their attention to the immorality being perpetrated by the pastor and demanding that steps be taken to halt the move.
The family, she pointed out, was assured the matter would be looked into and as much as possible amicably resolved. Surprisingly, the bride's mother lamented, no one got back to the family and there was no attempt by the leadership of the church to intervene in the matter.
Rev. Tugba, she told newsmen, went ahead with the wedding plan, making sure he kept it away as much as possible from the family. 'If there is not more to this thing, how can a wedding involving my own daughter be taking place inside this church right now and I, the mother and my other children are outside here, locked out on the order of the pastor?", he rhetorically asked.
In a fit of anger, she pronounced unprintable words on the daughter, saying she ceased to be her daughter with the wedding and walked into a makeshift store adjacent the church where he sat and waited for the wedding to be over.
An attempt by newsmen to gain entry into the church where the wedding was being conducted was rebuffed by the policemen and some members of the church on the excuse that they were not invited to the occasion.
All efforts to reach the new couple were still futile as at press time.