Forgive us for criticizing Gborbu Wulomo’s child marriage – Yaw Oppong begs Nungua Chiefs

Director of the Ghana School of Law, Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong, has asked for forgiveness for himself and others who criticized the marriage of the 63-year-old Ga priest to a 13-year-old girl.

Nuumo Borketey Laweh XXXIII, known as the Gborbu Wulomo, faced significant backlash when a video of his wedding ceremony with the young girl, Naa Okromo, became public.

The ceremony, which attracted widespread attention, took place on Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Nungua.

In an interview on The Point of View on Citi TV, Yaw Oppong, who is also the Mawerehene of Akyem Abuakwa admitted his initial outrage and that of some Ghanaians at the news of the marriage. This changed when Rev Dr Daniel Nii Gyasi Ankrah, Director of Administration, Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse, clarified that the minor was customarily married to a deity and not the priest.

He praised Rev Dr Daniel Nii Gyasi Ankrah for his eloquent explanation of the customs behind the marriage, asking for forgiveness from the Nungua chiefs.

“Let’s give it to Rev Dr Daniel Nii Gyasi Ankrah, he was extremely eloquent, I have no grounds to doubt what he said. To be honest with you, we were all outraged, Nananom [chiefs] should forgive us, Naamei, they should forgive us, but we were all outraged, but when the explanation came…To be honest, I think that we have to hail those who have ensured that this technological century or generation has come this far.”

Yaw Oppong blamed the women MCs who either deferred instructions of the marriage or got carried away by making comments that suggested that the minor was married to the 63-year-old priest and not a deity.

He questioned why the female MCs were not stopped when they supposedly deviated.

“I agree with some who have expressed the view that those ladies [MCs], they are virtually akyeame. They are people through whom the principal, sometimes the chief speaks. It is assumed that they would have been briefed. I’m balancing it, they may not have come to that conclusion which they declared to our hearing without a basis.

“They would have been informed that they were going to do a marriage ceremony, but we also know that these people exaggerate a lot.

“But why were they not stopped? At the point where they got to deviation, they should have been told. And this is why you cannot also blame those who took it up. I think Naamei and Niimei should pardon all of us. Because either those people betrayed them or they were carried away by the whole pomp and pageantry or the fact that this is so unique or they took the wrong instructions, or they were misinformed by the person who instructed them.”

—citinewsroom