Ex-Minister Divorces Husband, Returns Bride Price

 A former Minister under later President Musa Yar’Adua, Mrs.Grace Ekpiwhre, on Monday formally divorced her husband of 29 years.

Chukwudi Iwuchukwu Blog learnt that the marriage had been in serious turbulence for some years, before the 65-year old woman approached a customary court to dissolve the union, which had produced a girl.

Ekpiwhre, who held three ministerial positions in the past, told the court that there was “no love lost” between her and her ex- husband, Chief Peter Ekpiwhre.

The complainant was a career civil servant who retired in 2007 before she was appointed by Yar’Adua, first as Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology in July 2007, and then Minister of State Works, Housing and Urban Development in December 2008.



The divorcee who also held fort as the Supervising Minister for the Ministry of Women and Social Development was born on 4 January, 1949 in the village of Ikweghwu in Agharho, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.

On Monday, a Customary Court sitting in Agbarho,Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, dissolved the marriage between the former Head of Service and her husband.

In her ruling, President of the Court, Mrs. Stella Okah, noted that she was dissolving the marriage because “there has been no love lost” between the couple for a long time.

Okah who was supported by Dr Adadi Omosowho and Richard Onosigho, members of her court, ordered the family of the woman to refund the sum of N120 paid as dowry when the marriage was contracted in 1985.

She was asked to return the money to her ex-husband who hails from Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state, through the registry department of the court.

Immediately, the eldest man in the Akpoguma Family of Agbarho in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Chief Samuel Salubi, refunded the dowry at the registry department of the court.

Checks show that the former minister grew up in a village called Ovu Inland in Ethiope West, Delta State.

The ex-minister, who was the first wife, was with the defunct Bendel State civil service as Fisheries Officer Grade II, and later Director General of Women Affairs and Director General of Government Parastatals.

She became a Permanent Secretary in 1999, at one time in charge of Housing. She was appointed Head of Civil Service, Delta State in 2002, and Chairman, State Civil Service Commission in 2007, before moving to the federal level.