Nigerian Entertainment Today can authoritatively tell you that Nollywood star actress, Mercy Johnson, despite the recent controversy surrounding her upcoming wedding, will still be getting married on Saturday, August 27, 2011.
In the last few weeks the actress has faced allegations of snatching her husband-to-be Prince Odianosen Okojie from another woman; to managing rumours of a pregnancy. Despite the whole drama, Johnson remains adamant on having her wedding. As at the time of this report, wedding plans were underway. Her close friends tell us she’s going ahead with the big plans, even though she’s remained evasive, refusing to issue any statements.
But the controversial wedding will no longer hold at the Christ Embassy church headquarters, as earlier announced.
An insider at Christ Embassy’s head quarters situated at 51/53 Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, tells us that there is no way the wedding can hold in the church. Mercy we hear is not a regular member and even though the church doesn’t have a notice board for upcoming weddings, our source insists they have neither mentioned Mercy’s marriage during wedding announcements at service nor placed it in their Sunday Worship newsletters.
‘Anybody that wants to get married in the church will have to attend the ‘Foundation school’ for new believers, become a member of the Pastoral Care Fellowship (PCF) for a month and then go for marriage counselling’, an insider at Christ Embassy who would rather remain anonymous tells NET. ‘It is only a committed member of the church that can marry here, I haven’t seen Johnson worship here. I strongly doubt if the church will allow her wed here especially with all the brouhaha surrounding the wedding ‘. NET also gathered that the church’s main office at Oregun is where all marriages are approved, so if there is a case where Mercy is a regular worshipper at some other Christ Embassy branch, she and Prince Odianosen will still have to go to the main church for marriage counselling.
But Mercy’s people tell us the reason she’s moving the wedding is because the church’s strict pastors refused to give her and her scandalized groom a clean bill of health – insisting a divorce letter must be produced before the wedding would be allowed.
We could not immediately confirm the new venue and it’s not likely she has given guests a new address.
Legally there will be consequences if Mercy goes ahead with the August 27 wedding with Prince Odianosen. If the husband-to-be does not legally divorce Lovely then he will be committing an act called bigamy which is filed under the Nigerian Criminal Code as an offence punishable by law. It also makes the marriage to Mercy null and void. Nigerian Entertainment Today reached out to Lagos based lawyer Festus Keyamo who, surprisingly, declined commenting. ‘I believe it’s a private matter. I reserve my comments, thank you’, he told us.
Publicist Bobby Taylor comments ‘I don’t think it will affect her career in anyway. It’s a sad situation, however I feel her Publicist is doing a great job in addressing the public. However she will have to address the public herself soon and can do that through her publicist’.
And talking about how the whole drama will affect Mercy’s career, some think it will slow her down while others think it can only be bad for a while before everything calms down, wedding or not. Speaking with Segun Arinze, President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), he says ‘It’s Mercy’s call, it’s entirely up to her. If the (other) woman says she has proof, well they’ll have to sort themselves. It’s a matter of settling themselves. She’s a professional and whatever happens in her personal life shouldn’t affect her career.’
Throughout this whole drama, one person who has remained silent is the man in question – Prince Odianosen. His wife Lovely, says an embattled Odianosen has been trying by all means to divorce her. She posted online pictures of divorce petitions and court summons sent to her father in Benin, Edo state on several websites over the past two weeks.. Our reporter paid the Edo prince a visit but was not granted access into his residence at Oluwadamilola Fashade Street, Omole Phase 1, Lagos. We however gathered from neighbours that he rarely leaves his home ever since the recent news became public.
Even though this whole situation is as uptight as it can get, this isn’t the first time something like this is happening. In 2005, actress Shan George was accused of marrying a certain Tony Nwosisi who was apparently married to another woman named Success. In 2008, a US-based woman named Ruth Okoro disclosed publicly that popular actress Ini Edo was the reason her husband Philip Ehiagwina dumped her in the states just to marry Edo.
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