IT was one of the most high profile celebrity weddings this year, when Urban Boys lead singer Safi ‘Madiba’ got hitched to his girlfriend Judith Niyonizera early this month.

The star-studded civil marriage in Remera was followed by a traditional marriage ceremony (gusaba) in Kicukiro district.

Questions soon followed about the future of the boy group, with speculation running high that Urban Boyz could be headed for a split.

But barely had the dust from Safi’s wedding and speculation about the group’s future settled, a marriage-threatening scandal surfaced. 

Apparently, there is a love triangle involving the newly married couple and a one Rick Hilton, a Canadian national who claims to have been the rightful lover of Niyonizera, who has been living in Canada. 

Before Safi and Niyonizera got hitched, Niyonizera was apparently married to a Canadian national but the two went separate ways.

However, in an email forwarded to local media, another Canadian national, Rick Hilton took issue with Niyonizera’s wedding, claiming that he was in a relationship with her for the previous two years, and that she took a lot of money from him and other Canadian men.

He also attaches some pictures of him and Niyonizera while on vacation in Mexico in their happier days, plus a few intimate photos of Niyonizera apparently in his bedroom.

"Hello, my name is Rick Hilton and I have some news for you.

For the last two years Judy and I have been having a hot romantic relationship here in Canada the whole time she was planning this dream wedding to this….(Safi Madiba), Hilton opens in his email to The New Times.

"She played me and him (Safi) for fools, and took thousands of dollars from me. The day she left she said to me she was going back to settle some family issues and then I see the wedding. She was in my bed planning this marriage, taking money and my heart. I am a fool. She is a big time liar and a thief. We were to live together, be married blah blah, what a fool I am, shattered and crushed by her deception,” a jilted Hilton further rants.

In conclusion, he warns the couple not to set foot in Canada or else risk legal action;

"Let her know I am alerting the Canadian authorities to watch for her at the border. I hope they put her in jail,” he threatens.

Repeated efforts by The New Times to get a comment from Niyonizera were futile by press time. However, in a message sent to this newspaper, Safi rejected Rick’s claims, describing them as falsehoods. He declined to delve further into the controversy.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw