Tomorrow in the Garden City of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, NationSport’s Oluwamayomikun Orekoya will quit bachelorhood as he walks down the aisle with his sweetheart Joy Nyeche.
The lovebirds met over two decades ago in Port Harcourt and they are solemnising their friendship to live together as husband and wife.
“I first saw my future wife while I was undergoing a diploma course at the Rivers State College of Arts and Science (Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola) around the year 2000,” Orekoya said. “ We were not acquaintances but I always used to notice a somewhat very vocal, fair, and short young lady. After a while, I stopped noticing her and she faded from my consciousness.”
“Due to the incessant ASUU strike in 2001-2002, I had to proceed to further my tertiary education at a private university but we still kept very much in touch. She would come to visit my parents’ house in Elelenwo, Port Harcourt where coincidentally my father’s tenant was her very close uncle , Mr. Onwuchekwa.
“Over the years Joy and I became so close most of our friends seemed to see the handwriting on the wall and pestered us why we weren’t getting married. She would come down to Lagos at least once a year and was by my side when I lost my grandfather and role model Chief Adebayo Ogunyemi. She was by my side throughout the ceremonies in Sagamu and in a way we became much closer.
“Joy and I shared a mutual passion for beaches and the highlights of my year normally occurs when she comes around and we both go around Lagos looking for a new beachfront for us to explore.
“If someone had said I would be marrying Joy in the past, I would have scoffed and laughed it off, (I am sure she would have had the same reaction if she was told the same thing) but most of our close friends definitely saw what we were not seeing… We masked what we truly felt for each other under the guise of a brilliant and unique friendship,” he said.