The former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole on Friday, January 15, 2021 got married to the love of his life, Aisha Atiku Bagudu.
The duo tied the knot at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Friday before proceeding to Abeokuta, Ogun State on Saturday to celebrate the traditional wedding, welcoming Aisha to the Bankole’s family.
While the groom, 51, is the son of the great Abeokuta politician and business man,Chief Alani Bankole, Aisha is the daughter of the Kebbi State governor and chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors forum, Atiku Bagudu.
The wedding ceremony took place on Friday January 15, 2021. The traditional engagement ceremony /reception took place in Abeokuta on Saturday.
The bride is a lawyer and graduate of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. She is also a granddaughter to Umaru Shinkafi, a late Nigerian intelligence chief and former federal commissioner of Internal Affairs.
Aisha’s mother is Shinkafi’s daughter and a sister to Aliyu Shinkafi, a former governor of Zamfara State.
Bankole, on the other hand, is a politician who served as the 9th Speaker of the House of Representatives. Elected at 37, he is regarded as the youngest speaker in the history of the House of Representatives.
Both families had earlier held an introduction ceremony where Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto governor and Bankole’s successor as Speaker of the House, led the groom’s people to the bride’s family home to seek her hand in marriage. It had kicked off the union of the couple in line with Islamic and traditional injunctions ahead of Friday’s event.
Formerly married to Olaitan Bankole (nee Akinlade), the marriage produced two children. Olaitan who lost her firstborn, Yewande, trained as a medical doctor in a Ghanaian university. The late child, Yewande, a 7-year-old then, was the first of the two children of Bankole and his ex wife.. Her birth took place in Ghana, while Olaitan was rounding off her medical studies at the University of Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Meanwhile, Olaitan has remained silent on what caused their divorce in 2017. Family sources revealed that the genotype incompatibility between Bankole and Olaitan must have triggered off their separation and divorce. “Losing their daughter who was a sickle cell carrier was a big blow and the knowledge that they would not have another child , coupled with other reasons must have caused a strain on the relationship. They have one surviving child, a boy. But that divorce was just meant to be,” the source told Kemiashefonlovehaven.