A man has asked the Igando Customary Court in Lagos State to dissolve his marriage after his wife gave birth to a child in an unlikely circumstances.
Mr. Jose Salami told the court that before his marriage in 2013, his wife, Mrs Sola Jaiyeola had told him, she was one month pregnant which caused him to speed their marriage process. But the most unlikely thing happened as she gave birth five months later, making him to doubt the paternity of the child.
He told the court: “In March 2013, she said she was a month pregnant for me; so, I arranged for a traditional marriage to be done. But to my surprise, my wife put to bed in July of that same year, and when I asked how possible it was, she waived it aside.
The paternity of the child became worrisome and I summoned her parents to intervene and ask her how possible it is to give birth within five months. Also, when the matter happened, she stopped cooking for me, and I was eating out, thinking she would change, but nothing happened. Communication also seized. If she wanted to tell me anything, she would write it on paper and put it on a table for me to see.
In the year 2016, I came home and found out she had moved out with our only daughter, and all efforts to make her come back proved abortive. She switched off her phones and blocked all communications with me”
The petitioner said that later, she told him to move on with his life as she was no longer interested in the marriage. He urged the court to dissolve the marriage, saying that he was approaching 50 years of age and needed to move on.
In his judgment, the President of the court, Adeniyi Koledoye, said that it appeared the love between the couple had since perished. He noted that the respondent did not show up in court in spite of several summons.
“There is no doubt that the respondent was in another relationship from which she was pregnant, and perhaps the pregnancy was rejected and she decided to hang it on the petitioner. However, the petitioner ought to have opted out of the marriage immediately he discovered that the paternity of the child was doubtful. It is clear the petitioner was deceived into the marriage by the respondent,” the judge held
Koledoye, therefore, dissolved the marriage and ordered the respondent to pay N200,000 to the petitioner.
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