Nollywood Actress Weds

Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson, took her fiancé, Prince Ordianosen Okojie to the altar on Saturday August 27, amid pomp and tight security.

The wedding took place at the headquarters church of the Christ Embassy off Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun Ikeja. While the reception took place immediately after at 10 Degree on Billingsway also at Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos State.

The man who staked his reputation to ensure the wedding took place, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, was not present at the ceremony. He was however aided by another senior pastor of the church, Ton Obiazi, who joined the couple in a holy matrimony.

Obiazi was assisted by a pastor colleague.

The former Miss Johnson is one of the reigning young actresses in the Nigeria home video industry, where she has found herself enmeshed in one controversy after the other in the last few years.  

Even her wedding plan was the talk-of-the town over allegations of bigamy levelled against her fiancé by a Canadian-based Nigerian, Lovelyn Okojie.

Many of her fans were shocked to receive the news that Mercy’s fiancé was formerly married to Lovelyn who has two children by him.

At the wedding venue, the gate was manned by about 50 policemen and private security personnel, who turned away uninvited guests to forestall any form of trouble at the event.

Photographers from different media houses were also barred from entering the church auditorium and many had their camera seized by security.

Others were compelled to delete from their cameras photographs of the couple already taken.

Lights in the church auditorium were also dimmed to prevent media men and other guests from taking photographs of the couple.

Security reasons were also given for that. More than 2, 000 persons were present at the wedding ceremony.

The security measures were not unconnected with the threat of a civil group on women’s rights to storm venue of the wedding with chants of protests, in sympathy with Lovelyn, who claimed to be Okojie’s lawful wife.

At the occasion, the centre of attraction, former Miss Johnson, wore a cream coloured wedding dress. She was driven into the church compound in a white limousine, accompanied by some of her colleagues in the movie industry.

Okojie was also dressed in a cream coloured suit.

The decision of the church to go ahead with the wedding despite the confusion over Okojie’s marital status came as a surprise to many people who queried the morality of it.

The church itself cleverly refrained from asking the audience the conventional question of whether anyone in the gathering was opposed to the wedding.

Some of the security men wielded dangerous armaments including electric baton, which they used to disperse unwanted guests.

Some of the guests, who had invitation cards, were beaten by security officials.

Expectedly, the wedding ceremony was graced by many Nollywood stars, including Patience Ozokwor (alias Mama G), Genevieve Nnaji, Mike Ezuruoye, Stephanie Okereke, Segun Arise and KC Presh.

A Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelson was the maid of honour, while her bridesmaids were Chika Ike, Empress Njamah, Pop singer, Goldie, Waje, and Queen Nwokonye. Sensational comedians AY and ‘I go die o’ were the official Masters of Ceremonies of the day.