Encomium
-Lady Maiden Ibru loses bag to yet to be identified friend
THE traditional wedding of Miss Omotuvie Alexia Ibru, the daughter of Lady Maiden Ibru, the publisher of The Guardian newspapers and her late husband, Alex Ibru, may have come and gone but leaves a lot of tales trailing it.
One of the tales still trailing the high octane wedding is the convergence of the pillars of Nigerian society at the traditional wedding. The gathering of such high caliber guests has not been witnessed in recent times.
Among the pillars that graced the talk-of-the-town wedding were Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Femi Otedola, Chief Razak Okoya and wife, Shade, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and wife, Senator Remi Tinubu, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan of Delta State, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye, the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Dame Abimbola Fashola, wife of Lagos State governor and Princess Sarah Sosah, the former deputy governor of Lagos State.
Others included elder statesmen like Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Chief Sonny Odogwu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Otunba Adekunle Ojora and wife, Mr. Akintola Williams, Mr. Oba Otudeko, Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun, Uncle Sam Amuka Pemu and many others.
The absence of the Ibru brothers, Olorogun Felix Ibru and Goodie Ibru, however, did not go unnoticed. Many of the guests noticed that instead of Olorogun Felix Ibru representing the Ibru clan, it was Oskar Ibru, who is a cousin to the bride that represented and acted as the head of the Ibru family.
This will be the second time Oskar Ibru would be playing this role as head of the family despite the fact that his uncles, Olorogun Felix Ibru and Goodie Ibru are still very much alive and kicking.
At the traditional wedding of Anita Ibru (who is the first daughter of late Alex Ibru and Lady Maiden Ibru) to her Ghanaian husband, Marcel Kouassigan on April 21, 2012, the two most senior Ibru brothers were equally conspicuously absent and Olorogun Oskar Ibru, was called in then to act as the head of the family.
ENCOMIUM Weekly reliably gathered that the most senior Ibru brothers were conspicuously absent at the two traditional weddings of their nieces Anita and Alexia, because their mother, Lady Maiden Ibru did not invite them.
The non-extension of invitation to them, we gathered, is certainly connected to war of attrition between the brothers particularly between Mr. Goodie and late Alex Ibru, over a business deal gone sour.
The disagreement led to litigation which, according to Lady Maiden Ibru, was filed before her husband’s demise.
The legal tussle between the brothers which generated a lot of furore when it became public knowledge is still pending in the law court up till now.
Another issue trailing the highbrow society wedding was the missing bag of the bride’s mother, Lady Maiden Ibru. ENCOMIUM Weekly gathered at the party that the personal bag of the bride’s mother, where she kept all the gifts given to her by guests got missing.
We gathered that Lady Maiden Ibru gave the bag to one of her friends to keep for her while she attended to her guests. But when she came back to put something inside the bag, it was nowhere to be found and none of her friends owned up to be the one the bag was given to.
As at the time we are filing this report, the bag has not been found.
Meanwhile, ENCOMIUM Weekly gathered that the white wedding between Omotuvie Alexia Ibru and Maxwell Herbert Leile, will take place in London sometime in May or June this year.
Guests at this leg of wedding are expected to be between 150 and 200 and those that are going from Nigeria are likely to be on the ticket of the bride’s mother.
