A Customary Court sitting in Agbarho, Ughelli North Local Government Area yesterday formally dissolved the marriage between former minister and her husband.The court declared that the love necessary to sustain the maritalrelationship between the duo had obviously waxed cold irreconcilably.
According to the President of the court, Mrs. Stella Okah, she was left with no other option in the light of the evidence before her than to dissolve the marriage.
She said she was convinced that there had been strained conjugal love between the couple for a long period of time, which she said prompted the one-time minister to seek its dissolution in court.
The minster had approached the court for the dissolution of the union as she was no longer interested in the marriage that was blessed with a girl.
The court president was supported in her position by Chief Adadi Omosowho and Mr. Richard Onosigho, both members of the Agbarho Customary Court, which consequently ordered the family of the Mrs Ekpiwhre to refund to the court’s registry the sum of N120 paid as customary bride price by Mr Ekpiwhre when the marriage was contracted 1985.
However, a mild drama ensued as soon as the court formally dissolved the marriage, the eldest man of the Akpoguma family of Agbarho, where the plaintiff hails from in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Chief Samuel Salubi, refunded the said amount to the court.
Before her appointment as Nigeria’s Science and Technology Minister during the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua government in 2007, Mrs. Ekpiwhre had retired as Delta State’s Head of Service.
She was to serve later in the same government as Minister of State for Works and Housing following a cabinet reshuffle, though she also had a stint as a supervising Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development.
Although, rumour about a strained relationship between the couple had been rife for a long time, many did not believe that it could end up in dissolution as they believed that shared political interest would save the union.
Source: Thisday