Dumped by Ghanaian wife, 64 year old begs to reunite with three children after 28 years

Wonders, they say, shall never end. Is it not intriguing that 64 year-old Nigerian, Mr. Lawrence Ani, is battling to reunite with his three children, whose mother, a Ghanaian over two decades abandoned during her marital flight back to Ghana.
Weighed down by unyielding efforts to meet with his lovely children, a boy and two girls after 28 years, Mr Ani, now resident in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, expects his children, who are now grown up to naturally return to Nigeria.
The expectation may come to nothing as Ani’s marital rights to Ms. Patience Ami Agbesie, was said to be inconclusive following controversies over the non-completion of the marriage rites as required by the Ghanaian tradition having only married his wife in the Nigerian regulations.
Mr Ani hails from Nkwere-Umuozu, in Nwangelle LGA in Imo state and is now resi¬dent in Port Harcourt. He told The AUTHORITY on Sunday that he had fully
completed his marital rites in Igbo tradition with his former wife back then in 1981, when they first met in Kano.
Having attempted severally to reconnect with Agbesie in Ghana, Ani however received a temporal reprieve when he wrote a letter through the Social Welfare Office in Port Harcourt, to the Head of the Ghana Police Force sometime in July 1990, asking them to assist him trace his wife. The Police in Ghana in a reply dated 8th April, 19991, stated that they had traced his former wife with a forwarding address in care of one Mr. C.P.K Ukudgetor, with Post Office Box No. 1, Adidome, Volta region Ghana. Through the Police authorities in Ghana, Ms. Agbesie confirmed that she and Mr Ani were staying as husband and wife back in Nigeria even though no marriage rites were performed. She also confirmed they had three children together.
She also accepted that Ani could come for his children provided the required customary rites, as obtained in Ghana, were fully settled. She was emphatic she cannot return to Nigeria because she was already married to another man, insisting she was lawfully married to the Ghanaian with whom she already, as at then, has a child, pointing out that her hitherto marriage with Ani should be considered dissolved.
According to her, all the three children were studying in
Ghana and as at the last time they communicated, being in 1991, she had expanded over 50,000 Cedi on their education alone, as Mr Ani has never remitted any money for their up¬keep.
She emphatically denied receiving money or cloth from Ani who had claimed that on two occasions, he had sent money and other items through a Ghanaian, who is married to a Nigerian, who was then posed as a contact person. Stating further in her statements to the Police Authorities in Ghana, she insisted that Mr. Ani must remit the sum of C25,000 per month, being required expenses for the maintenance of the children.
Now married to another woman in Nigeria, Ani is claiming that it was wrong for his former wife to put up such conditions before he could set his eyes on his children, having been legally married to her before the circumstances that brought about their separation. He maintained that he had attempted about twice to visit Ghana and fulfill the required obligations, but was not certain about the reception and security situation there and so, had to drop the idea.
Mr. Ani further said he was grieved to read a letter from one of his daughters on 8th August, 2000 and another one again in 2003, from his second daughter, who included contact phone number though he had not been lucky to put any successful call through the line since then, even as their mother had told them that he had passed on.
Narrating the story almost in tears, of how he met his former wife, Ani told The AUTHORITY on Sunday that as a young man then 24 years old residing in Kano in 1981, he met a young Ghanaian (Patience) who was then about 19 years old and after a very short period of courtship, they agreed to get married based on mutual consent.
With his thriving tailoring business, with ten sewing machines, he was set for marital responsibilities and sought to be introduced to the guardian of his new found love, Mr. James Tete, who was also residing in Kano.
He added that based on mutual agreement, he had to consult with his more mature, though distant relation in Kano, Mr. Julius Patrick Obasi, who led a delegation of four members of his family to Mr. Tete’s residence in the presence of some other Ghanaian acquaintances said to be relations of his finance, to conclude the marriage rites, which he claimed was successful.
He said: “We were ready to pay the bride price, but the head of the Ghana delegation dilly dallied, saying when they get to Ghana for the formal rites, the girl’s Parents will directly take charge as the Ghanaian customs require”. According to him after the initial consultations in Kano, they had started living as husband and wife and between 1981 and 1985, they had three children: a boy and two girls.
However, by this period, diplomatic roar ensued between the Nigerian Government and Ghana, which led to mass exodus of Ghanaians from Ni-geria, popularly called “Ghana-Must-Go”.
Having successfully ratified her citizenship status as a Nigerian citizen, having married him, her guardians left for Ghana with the assurance that they would ensure the completion of the remaining marriage rites in Ghana tradition as soon as they got there. While he was hoping to expedite action to consolidate the marital obligations, misfortune struck during the regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, when the Ndigbo were massacred in large numbers Kano, a situation he said, compelled him to relocate his young family to Port Harcourt.
Though settling down in Port Hacourt was not very easy, according to him, they started a small business of buying and selling, but along the line Ani said his former wife got entangle with a circle of some Ghanaian friends in Mile One area of Port Harcourt. “From that moment up, my wife’s be-haviour changed. This led to a deep crack in the marriage. Even when I pleaded with her to settle down for the sake of the children, she had made up her mind to abscond since she was already having illicit relationship with another Ghanaian already. Sometimes she will abandoned our three children for days and on coming back, she will not show any remorse for operating outside her matrimonial home,” he disclosed.
He added: “I pleaded with her to stay with me for the sake of the children. I even took the matter to the welfare Office in Port Harcourt. We were advised against doing anything that would impact negatively on the children in future. Unknown to me, my wife and her new found Ghanaian man-friend, a teacher in one of the primary schools in Port Harcourt, had finalised arrangements to elope with my three children”.
With the turn of events, Ani stated that on 7th June 1988, during school hours, his former wife went to collect the children in their school and left for Ghana without leaving a word for him. Since then, he has not set eyes on his children, asking that people should come to his assistance.