Former Senate Leader and current Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Chairman, Victor Ndoma Egba, has formally solemnized his marriage to long time partner Amaka Ndoma Egba, according to the matrimonial rites of the Catholic Church. The wedding which took place at the Vatican, Italy, was celebrated by an indigenous Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Malachy Ephraim, the parish priest of St. Charles Lwanga Catholic Parish, Essien Town, Calabar.
Family sources informed www.calitown.com that Ndoma-Egba’s wedding had to be delayed to yesterday, while waiting for the annulment of an earlier marriage, an annulment he applied for and obtained from the Catholic Church. We gathered from one Church source that “… an annulment declares that a marriage was never a valid sacrament in the first place even if both parties entered into it with good faith and intentions….if a person was married validly and then divorced but never obtained an annulment, then that person is still married in the eyes of the Church. He or she cannot validly marry again in the Catholic Church. However, remarriage isn’t out of the question for Catholics. Like the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the Sacrament of Matrimony can take place only once, unless one spouse dies. Due to the lifelong commitment that’s required for the Sacrament of Matrimony, Catholics can marry only someone who’s widowed or who wasn’t married before. If a person was previously married and the spouse is alive, it must be demonstrated that the marriage was invalid, so the previous union can be declared null and void through an annulment. If that happens, both parties are free to marry someone else — the Church hopes validly this time” our source concluded.
Ndoma-Egba and wife are expected back in the country, shortly.