Wedding of Major General Yakubu Gowon | April 19th 1969

Footage of the marriage between Major-General Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian head of state, and Victoria Zakari on Saturday April 19th 1969. The 95-minute wedding ceremony, which took place at the Christ Church Cathedral Lagos, was presided over by the Anglican Bishop, S.I. Kale. The bridegroom's best man was Rear Admiral Joseph Wey, the Naval Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters. Gowon, was 34 and his bride, Victoria Zakari, a nurse from his home village, was 23. Hundreds of Nigerians, including uniformed schoolchildren and market women, waited outside the cathedral. About 800 civilian and military dignitaries were in attendance. Armed troops in combat uniforms, threw a security ring round the cathedral and scores of plainclothes security policemen mingled with the congregation which included two of the three civil war commanders. The third, Colonel Mohameed Shuwa, who was directing an offensive against the Biafran stronghold of Umuahia, was conspicuously absent. The bride, who was given away by her civil servant father, wore a white lace dress and carried a small bunch of white and yellow roses. Gowon and his new wife then embarked on a four-day honeymoon, in the north of the country. Source: Reuters News