It began like any other day but when delectably dressed ladies, daintily attired and resplendent in the best of Bonny traditional and other beautiful apparels began streaming into the hallowed and serene environs of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral Church, Bonny, it was obvious that something spectacular was about unfolding. The day was Monday, 31st December, 2018.  

Before long the cathedral’s auditorium was filled to the entrance with guests hanging outside. Then the church bells clanged away as the embodiment of piety, the Very Reverend Richard Ibituru Hart, led his fellow clergy into the church hall to commence the Thanksgiving Service in honour of a lady of many parts, Mrs. Mina Larry Pepple.

She is acclaimed to be the brain behind and strength of the man respected nationally as a security czar and development expert, Larry Pepple, who had served as Chief Security Officer to a former Governor of Rivers State, Sir (Dr.) Peter Odili.

He also served in the Presidency, where he managed the disarmament, reintegration and rehabilitation of repentant militants under the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and his successor and erstwhile Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, and later as Executive Director of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA).  

The auspicious occasion was a Special Thanksgiving Service, which was preceded by a boat cruise at the Marina in Lagos, followed by a Special Reception at the West Bar, NLNG Residential Area, and a Thank You Barbecue Bash at their residence in Bonny, to celebrate Mrs. Mina Pepple’s 50^th Birthday. And for sure, the series of events attracted the crème-de-la-crème of Bonny, Rivers State, and Nigeria.  

In his sermon, the Dean of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Very Reverend Richard Ibituru Hart celebrated the celebrant, extolling her sterling virtues and ultra-excellent value addition to her husband’s meteoric rise in career, business and society, and charged her to dedicate the rest of life to the service of God and humanity.