Activities at the Vice President’s wing of the presidential villa were literally shutdown as Professor Yemi Osinbajo gave out his eldest daughter, Damilola, in marriage at a colourful event in Abuja. Journalists, including State House Correspondents, were barred from the event which began with a traditional marriage at his Aguda official residence in the presidential villa, Abuja.
The vice president’s daughter is being married to Oluseun Bakare. The news of Damilola’s engagement to Bakare emerged on social media during the week. Osinbajo later confirmed the marriage on his Twitter handle where he thanked God for the betrothal of his daughter. Osinbajo wrote: “With joy and praise to the Lord, Dolly and I announce the betrothal of our daughter Oludamilola Osinbajo to Oluseun Bakare.”
Our correspondent gathered that the ceremony was prevented from being publicized as reporters officially accredited to cover the presidential activities were prevented from covering it. Security aides of the Vice President had, on Wednesday, sent a message to reporters in the villa informing them that they were not needed at any of the programmes for the marriage ceremony. According to the message from the security aides, the Vice President and his family had already contracted the entire publicity of the traditional wedding and the white wedding, which will take place on Saturday, to a private company. Shortly after the traditional marriage, guests, including a few state governors, were hosted to a reception at the old Banquet Hall, now called the State House Conference Centre.
The white wedding has been scheduled to take place at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, on Saturday and another reception for guests will be held at the State House Conference Centre. New Telegraph learnt that both the families of the Vice President and Bakare have deliberately kept the media away from the event to make it low key.
Investigations also revealed that security personnel assigned to guard the venues of the ceremonies were warned not to take photographs with their phones or other elec-tronic devices. Two main packing lots of the villa – the pilot gate car park, popularly known as Forest, and the banquet – were left empty for only visitors who attended the reception ceremony.
As villa staff struggled to find alternative parking spaces, there was gridlock for hours around the main entrance of the villa which lasted for hours. The organisation of the wedding is different from both the wedding of Faith, the first child of former President Goodluck Jonathan, which took place in March 2014 and that of Zarah, President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, who married in December 2016. Both Faith and Zarah’s weddings, which took place in Abuja, were widely covered by the State House Correspondents and other media organizations.
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