Tochi Wigwe marries Wilson Aikhomu in private Lagos ceremony
- Tochi Wigwe, daughter of the late Access Holdings chief Herbert Wigwe, held her traditional wedding in Ikoyi, Lagos.
- She married Wilson Aikhomu, a Lagos investment executive, in a private ceremony attended by family and close friends.
- The wedding comes more than two years after her parents and brother died in a helicopter crash in California.
Tochi Wigwe, the eldest surviving daughter of the late banking executive Herbert Wigwe, has married Wilson Aikhomu in a private traditional ceremony in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The rites were held on Wednesday, November 4, and pictures and videos from the event spread on social media on Thursday, drawing congratulations from friends and well-wishers.
The ceremony stayed small, with family members and close friends in attendance. It followed the usual steps of a Nigerian traditional marriage: the bride price was paid, family documents were signed, and the bride was formally handed to her husband's family.
Photos showed Tochi in a red and gold beaded outfit and matching gele, holding a small golden cup as she went out to find her groom among the guests. Later pictures showed the couple in different outfits, dancing and posing with relatives.
A family milestone after loss
Tochi is the daughter of Herbert Wigwe, who built Access Bank into one of Nigeria's biggest lenders and later led Access Holdings. Her father, her mother Chizoba and her younger brother Chizi died on February 9, 2024, when a helicopter crashed near Nipton, California, on a trip from Palm Springs to Boulder City, Nevada.
Former Nigerian Exchange Group chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo and two crew members also died in that crash. Herbert Wigwe was 57.
According to Naija News, an aunt of the bride marked the wedding on social media with the Bible verse "Beauty for ashes, Isaiah 61:3."
Tochi, 28, studied at New York University and took a master's degree at Imperial College London. She worked as an analyst at Access Bank and interned at Coronation Merchant Bank, and she now sits on the board of the HOW Foundation, set up in her father's memory.
Her husband is a Lagos-based investment professional. He is the managing partner and chief investment officer of Zoya Admiralty and studied finance at California State University, Northridge, before further study in investments and risk finance at the University of Westminster. He worked at Leadway and RMB Stockbroking before his current role.
He is the son of the late Rear Admiral Joseph Aikhomu and a nephew of former Chief of General Staff Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. Reports say he was also a close friend of Tochi's late brother, Chizi.
For many Nigerians, the name Wigwe still carries weight because of Access Bank's reach and the tributes that followed his death. Thursday's news offered the family something happier to share, and the online response was largely warm.
