BOY'S PLEA FOILS DAD'S WEDDING (LEAD STORY, MIRROR, MARCH 27, 2010)

From A. Kofoya-Tetteh, Koforidua

“Oh, Daddy, why are you doing this? Get up and let’s go home.” These two sentences from a four-year-old boy to his father brought to an abrupt end a well attended wedding ceremony at which the father was just about to tie the nuptial knot with a different woman.
It happened at the Calvary Chapel of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Koforidua last Saturday.
The boy’s father, Mr Michael Charles Ntim, who initially claimed to be working in the office of the Vice President, was said to be a radio broadcaster based in Sunyani while the bride, Miss Millicent Oko Agyeman, is a staff member of the St Joseph Hospital, Effiduase, a suburb of Koforidua.
They were just about to tie the nuptial knot when the boy, accompanied by his 10-year-old elder brother and their mother, Ms Alberta Opoku, entered the chapel.
That was after the congregation had given a rousing welcome with a Hallelujah chorus to usher in the bride to take her seat beside a well dressed Charles Ntim, who had earlier taken his seat awaiting the arrival of the bride.
Sources close to the Calvary congregation said while Miss Opoku, who claimed to be Mrs Ntim, walked hurriedly towards the pulpit to register her protest to the officiating pastor that Ntim was her husband, the younger child, who spotted his father sitting beside Miss Agyeman, went to him and sat on his lap.
The source indicated that the little boy then asked his father, “Oh, Daddy, why are you doing this? Get up and let us go home”.
The remarks from the boy, according to the source, won the sympathy of some members of the congregation, who started making noise.
Realising the unfolding drama and confusion, the officiating minister, Rev. Appiah Danquah, and other clergymen of the church, as well as presbyters, gave audience to Miss Opoku in one of the adjoining offices.
She told them that Ntim was her husband by whom she had the two boys.
She said although there had been some hiccups in their marriage, it had not been dissolved, so when it came to her notice that Ntim was getting wedded to a different woman, she decided to come to Koforidua to register her protest.
Miss Opoku was said to have told the reverend ministers that she arrived from Accra last Wednesday and lodged at a hotel near the Calvary Chapel from where she started monitoring the event until she finally came to the church to register her protest.
The reverend ministers and the presbytery then confronted Mr Ntim, who debunked her claims to the effect that their marriage had long been dissolved but enquiries from some of his relatives present revealed that the marriage had not been dissolved.
The source stated that to save the church from any legal tango with the aggrieved woman, the officiating minister consulted some of the legal brains within the congregation after which he cancelled the wedding and asked those gathered to depart.
When contacted on the issue, Rev Appiah Danquah confirmed the story and said although Miss Agyeman, who is a member of the Calvary congregation, and Mr Ntim had to go through counselling from September 2009, during which the necessary questions were asked, Mr Ntim’s relationship with Miss Opoku did not come out.
He said the presbytery only had some misconceptions about the credentials of Mr Ntim, who claimed to be a journalist working in the office of the Vice President, which was later found to be false.
“Mr Ntim first told us that he was working in the office of the Vice President but later told us that he is a journalist based in Sunyani,” Rev Appiah Danquah stated.