Mrs Augusta
Uzodinma, wife of Senator Hope Uzodinma from Imo State, has raised an
alarm over her husband’s plan to get married to another woman in the
Catholic Church
marriage arrangement to indefinitely call off the plans , stressing that
she is still legally married to the Senator.
She made this
known to LEADERSHIP Weekend during her visit to their corporate
Headquarters in Abuja yesterday, alleging that the ban of the marriage
has been sent to the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Maitama, Abuja.
According to her, she was legitimately married to Uzodimma (now a Senator of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria) and has consummated their union both in court and in the Catholic Church.
She said they “got married when Uzodinma had nothing, let alone people
hearing about him as is the case today”, and have had five children
together, until 1996 when he asked her to go back to her parents that he
was going to travel down to have some issues cleared with them.
She said:
“At
a certain point in time I discovered that my husband, began to behave
strangely towards me, and I asked him severally in private why he became
changed all of a sudden, he said he was still the person I used to
know, that there was no problem. Then I learnt to keep my peace, only
for my husband to accuse me of changing, saying the thought of seeing me
around him was a threat to his life”.
“I
was confused because I knew I loved him with all my heart and could not
have become a different person to him after several years of marriage
that produced five kids. But he insisted that I left and, out of fear
for my own life, I had to leave. I have been waiting all this while for
him to come to my family so we can settle our differences for me to go
back to my marital home but he never did, and we have not divorced. He
has kept our five children and prevented them from seeing me all this
while and told them I am late while I am alive. He is my only husband. I
still love him till tomorrow in spite of my detention at one time by
the police and all that I suffered at his instance over time. How can
the same Catholic Church, which I know abhors polygamy to the latter,
wed him and another woman when our marriage is still valid?”
According
to the documents presented to LEADERSHIP Weekend by Mrs Uzodinma, the
church marriage between her and her husband was performed by Rev. Fr N.
C. Onwujiariri at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral Parish, Owerri and signed
by the administrator, on 12th April, 1993, while the court’s own was
signed at Marriage Registry in Lagos on the 5th day of June, 1996.
Mrs Uzodinma said all she wants is to reunite with her family and
appeals to the Church and all who care to empathise with her to ensure
that the planned second wedding of her husband does not hold.
When the marriage counsellor of Holy Trinity, Maitama was contacted he
acknowledged receipt of the marriage ban letter from the parish in Sen.
Uzodinma’s home town in Imo State and the objection raised by his wife.
He said they will play by the rule of the Church by sending back the
same letter with a note that an objection has been raised for proper
investigation to be carried out.
All efforts made to get Sen.
Uzodinma’s account via text messages and calls, some of which went
through severally, yielded no positive result at the time of going to
press.