Prof. Dominic Fobih and wife
The legal hurdle which nearly ruined the marriage of young at heart Prof. Dominic Fobih, a former Minister of Education and Sports under the President John Kufuor administration to a 30-year-old lady, has been thrown out by a High Court in Cape Coast.
The court, according to Dennis Law News (DL News), has asked the 81-year-old former minister to forgive his son, nephew and an estranged former wife for instituting the action which sought to dissolve the marriage.
“We can only ask the 1st Respondent (Prof. Fobih) to forgive his son and nephew, for they know not the power of love,” DL News quotes the court as saying.
The 81-year-old former Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin South recently had a lavish wedding ceremony, which gained a lot of public attention after videos were shared on social media.
In the videos, the good old professor was seen in a Kente cloth, excited and dancing with his new wife who wore a white and gold beaded-laced corset gown.
The reason for the buzz was due to reports that his new wife was 29 years old, and the significant age difference between the two.
But his son, nephew, and a supposed wife filed a suit before a High Court in Cape Coast to challenge Prof. Fobih’s decision to marry Mary Nyamekye Oduro, mainly because of the age difference between the two, which is almost more than 50 years.
DL News says the plaintiffs had argued that the decision of Prof. Dominic Fobih to marry Mary Nyamekye was based on unsound reasoning, having suffered and recovered from a stroke.
It said they also argued that the age difference between the old man and his bride, which is about fifty years, would weigh heavily on the union and result in a nasty divorce, as had been his lot in his last three marriages.
The three also raised concerns about whether Prof. Fobih had a pending marriage with one Beatrice Boateng, although the former minister had stated that marriage was dissolved.
The three also described the lady as having ulterior motives to enter marriage with a man of that age, as well as accusing her of alleged serial infidelity.
The three were also concerned about Prof. Fobih’s new found love, as they accused the lady of beguiling him to leave his property to her and kill him in the long run.
The Cape Coast High Court, according to DL News, said the action filed by the three had no justifiable grounds, and does not see why Prof. Fobih cannot be married to the love of his life.
It said the court presided over by Justice Bernard Bentil, found that indeed the marriage between Prof. Fobih and Beatrice Boateng had been dissolved, thus describing the caveators’ affidavit as “empty and bereft of any substance to ground their claim.”
The court, therefore, cleared Prof. Fobih and Mary Nyamekye as fit to marry.
The court then asked Prof. Fobih to forgive his son, Dr. Nick Fobih; his nephew, Nicholas Fobih, and awarded a total cost of GH¢50,000 against the three.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak