Y’de II council weddings marred by fisticuffs

For most people who turned up on Saturday, June 25, 2016, for the signing of the marriages of their relations at the Yaounde II Sub-divisional Council located below the Yaounde Conference Centre at Tsinga, the expected celebration tuned out to be a nightmare.

According to a lady who attended one of the weddings, at least eight marriages were signed on the day by Mayor Luc Assamba and some of his deputies, but most were contested for various reasons.

"Some of the men getting married already had children with other women. On learning that their boyfriends were getting married to other ladies, the aggrieved women and their children all trouped to the council to disrupt the weddings. Each time the presiding Mayor asked if anyone had any objection to the people being joined in marriage, the opponents all answered "yes!" in a chorus.

This resulted in confusion and the exchange of blows between the contesting parties," explained our source. This scene, according to her, was repeated almost each time a would-be couple stepped forward to be joined in marriage.

Police who were called in to restore order proceeded to lock out of the council gate all those who were opposed to any marriage, thereby enabling officials to continue in spite of the loud protests from outside.

A man who had three children with a woman to whom he was not legally married was about to be joined in marriage to a new woman. The mother and her three children claimed that the man sold the home in which they live to get married.

The children and their mother pleaded with the Mayor to compel the man to return the papers for the house, saying they had nowhere else to go to since their home had been sold. They took time to explain that their objective was not to stop the man from getting married to another woman.

Despite their protest, the family, was locked out of the gate for the wedding to go ahead. Their last desperate effort was to wail and roll on the ground at the council gate as the newly wedded man and his wife drove past.

Still in another instance, a man who had three children from another relationship was about to get married to a different woman. His family members, who were strongly opposed to his decision, engaged him in a fight as his three children and their mother watched helplessly.

In his own case also, the council officials went ahead and joined the 'dissident' man and his new wife in marriage - despite his family's protests.