Chief Ademola Odunade, president of a Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan on Thursday dissolved a four-year-old marriage between one Alfa Bashir Yekeen and his wife, Mariam, over alleged adultery, disobedience and distrust.
Odunade, who was visibly angry at the level of confusion caused by Mariam, advised parents to stop misguiding their married children.
The court president expressed regret that if lovers refused to imbibe Godliness and moral rebirth, the society might continue to rot.
“In the interest of peaceful living, the union between Bashir and Mariam has ceased to be.
“Custody of the three-year-old child produced by the union is awarded to Bashir’s mother, for proper care and Mariam shall return all the property illegally taken away to Bashir,” the Arbitrator said.
Bashir, an Islamic Cleric, had earlier told the court that his wife was “a violent troublemaker, who was not fit to be a wife’’.
“In 2014, I got married to Mariam in an elaborate ceremony, without knowing that our union would be short lived as a result of Mariam’s constant madness.
“Troublemaking is the least word to use in describing Mariam whenever she is angry because she often resorts to attacking anybody that comes her way with dangerous objects.
“Disobedience is even her watchword because she acts contrary to my instructions.
“In fact, Mariam abandoned my house soon after she became pregnant for me.
“As at then, we both stayed at Aja in Lagos. We agreed that Mariam should be with my parents in Ibadan, but she instead preferred to stay with her mother.
“However, when I demanded to take custody of my child, who I named Abdulganiyu, she denied that I fathered the child.
“Mariam delivered that child on Feb. 7, 2015 at one Emmanuel Hospital, Oke-Padi, in Ibadan.
“In addition, Mariam packed most of my belongings without my permission,” Bashir claimed.
The respondent, who consented to the divorce suit, however, denied ever being impregnated by her husband.
Mariam, who is a hair dresser, resides at Olodo area of Ibadan.
In her explanation, the respondent argued that she was already three-months pregnant before Bashir wedded or started sleeping with her.
“My Lord, Olusegun Olalekan, the man standing here, is the true father of the child in question.
“I used to travel to Abuja to meet him and he also fathered my first child.
“My father did not want me to marry Olalekan because he is a Christian, but I love him,” Mariam said.
Corroborating his mistress’s statement, Olusegun Olalekan, who said he was a Pastor and Mariam’s concubine, testified that he named the controversial child Olamide, in the hospital.
“Mariam gave the baby’s placenta to me in the hospital and it was with my name that she registered him for pre-natal care.
“Her mother is well aware of my union with her daughter since 2010,” Olalekan said.
Mariam’s mother could not deny knowledge of her daughter’s relationship with Olalekan when she was asked in court.
“In their separate testimonies, Bashir’s parents, however, told the court that they received the placenta and took care of it, adding that they never knew that Mariam ever had any baby prior to her wedding to their son.
In his disappointment, Mariam’s father openly disowned his daughter, considering the level of shame which she has brought to the family.
Olalekan finally rejected the option of determining the child’s paternity through a DNA test and signed an undertaking that the child does not belong to him. (NAN)
