When Nollywood actress, Regina Daniels Nwoko married billionaire International attorney and business tycoon, Ned Munir Nwoko in 2019, there was no controversy whatsoever about her age which was given and widely reported as 10 October 2000. The story hugging the headline then was that of a 19-year old marrying a 58-year old. Many chastised Ms Regina and her mother, Ms Rita Daniels for allegedly targeting lucre from the Idumuje-Ugboko -born billionaire philanthropist.
Ms Regina on her part fought back swirling criticisms of the union by notifying the critics that the marriage rhymes with her childhood prophetic words to her father years earlier that she would marry a man who would be about his age. At the time of Ms Regina’s sensational marriage to Senator Nwoko, the latter was at the height of his career as a daring international attorney who courageously helped his country to secure the Paris -London Club multi-billion dollar refund. It was a hefty refund that came at the right time and helped Nigeria to ward off a looming recession that was threatening her economy.
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Marrying the popular hero of this staggering International bailout was not a mean fit as Ms Regina’s popularity surged to dizzying levels. Ms Regina’s actress mother, Rita Daniels was the undertaker in chief sitting firmly on the driving seat of the marriage while relegating her estranged husband, Jude Ojeogwu to the background. At least on the surface, the marriage glamoured and glittered for six years producing two sons. There was no controversy about Ms Regina’s age or the propriety of the marriage all the years until the viral video of purported violence surfaced early November.
Then followed the eye-popping revelation of drug addiction, smoking and alcohol abuse being at the root of the recent rumble. Ms Regina’s caring and protective husband, who obviously still loved his straying wife, Senator Nwoko was ready to do his best to rehabilitate his wife at the best rehabs anywhere in the world. But he is being denied the chance. Enemies, political opponents and hawks have moved in, revving up the fault lines and pouring fuel at the smoke.
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In the process, Ms Regina’s age has been weaponised as a tool for nailing her caring husband and taking him out politically. Today, Ms Regina’s age is laughably mutating like biological amoeba between 24 and 27 years depending on the version of documents being bandied and which side of the prism the commentary is coming from.
Senator Nwoko and Ms Regina married traditionally in our homestead, Anioma and not in court. Mere divorce may not yield much especially since she was ranked 6th in the list of wives of the lawmaker. So far, the best option left to tie down the proprietor of Sports University of Nigeria (SUN) is to force the yoke of being a paedophile on his neck – ie marrying an under-aged.
In Nigeria the adult age counts from 18. Islamic law allows marriage below that threshold and Senator Nwoko is a Muslim. Nonetheless, the puzzle yet to be resolved is how old was Ms Regina when she married Ned in May 2019? I personally believe she was well above 17 then. And that probably explains why there was no attempt to claim a lower age since then until now that there is misunderstanding in the home.
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To stem further distraction, Senator Nwoko recently moved to set the record straight regarding the true age of Ms Regina when they got married in 2019. In a post on his verified Facebook and X handles, the Senator dismissed as totally false and untenable a narrative being peddled by Ms Regina and some of her supporters that she was aged 17 at the time of their marriage in 2019.
Among those who made such controversial claims were actress Mercy Johnson Okojie and Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters newspaper. Such claims in my estimation are revisionist if not mischievous and therefore unfounded. But in his stern response, Senator Nwoko frowned at what he described as “false, misleading, and malicious” allegations by those fishing for non-existent evidence against him. For those who did not know, Mr Sowore has a pending case in court with Senator Nwoko and that makes him and his Sahara Reporters a biased commentator in the Regina case.
Senator Nwoko took the wind out of the sail of the age merchants with this statement on his Facebook and X social media accounts on Thursday: “It has come to my attention that false claims are being circulated by Regina, suggesting that I married her when she was 17 years old. These claims are entirely untrue and misleading.
“For clarity, during my first meeting with Regina, I asked her age, and she told me she was 21 years old. I further asked if she had any document to support this, and she presented her INEC voter’s card, which clearly shows that she was born on October 10th, 1998. I informed her that I would keep this document in my possession, and I have done so since that day.
“I have also seen a BBC interview her mom granted after our marriage regarding her age. According to all verifiable records, our marriage took place six years ago, which means Regina is 27 years old today. Any suggestion that I married her at 17 is false and should not be accepted by the public.
“The facts are verifiable and indisputable. Until this is done, I urge the public to approach all her claims with caution and discernment especially taking into account her current mental condition having started and abandoned her rehabilitation from illegal drug addiction.”
Any glimmer of hope that the celebrated couple could reconcile? The window for such has continued to narrow down mainly due to the meddlesome actions of third party elements causing distractions and smear campaigns. The ball is Ms Regina’s court to retrace her steps and beg Senator Nwoko for forgiveness.
In the meantime, some questions may be asked – What school did Ms Regina attend right from pre-nursery, nursery, primary, through secondary to university? According to the school records at what age was she admitted to or graduated from those schools that she attended? What is her data with WAEC, INEC, NIN, JAMB etc?
Who were her classmates in those schools? Can they speak up? What is her position in the family? First, last or middle born? What are the ages of her siblings? All these may help towards revealing her true age despite the matter being already politicised and prone to compromise. Even though one has the strong belief that Ms Regina was of adult age well above 18 years as at the date of her marriage to Senator Ned in May 2019, and would not profit anything from the ongoing controversy, the truth needs to be unraveled with regard to her actual date of birth.
* Odozi Nwodozi, an indigene of Agbor in Delta State, is former President of Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo Abuja chapter.
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