Husband Faults Wife’s Pregnancy Claim, Asks Court To Dissolve Marriage

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

The 9-year old marriage between Jose Salami and his wife, Sola, has collapsed after the wife reportedly delivered of a baby five months after she had claimed to be pregnant for her husband.

P. M. EXPRESS reports that after Mrs. Sola was delivered of the baby, the husband, Jose, became worried and wondered how Sola would be delivered of the baby after five months he Impregnated her. 

The paternity of the child became an issue in the marriage over the years and they stopped talking to each other. And if Sola needed anything from Jose, she would write it on a sheet of paper and keep on their table for him to see.

Following the crisis in the marriage, Jose went to the Igando Customary Court Lagos State and filed a suit, seeking for the dissolution of his marriage with Sola on grounds of doubtful paternity of their only child.

The petitioner, Salami, who resides at 9, Bakare Street, Igando, Lagos State, had told the Court that he doubted the paternity of the only child produced by the union.

He stated: “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.”
“When the matter happened, she stopped cooking for me, and I was eating outside, thinking she would change, but nothing happened,” 

An embittered Jose lamented; “Every form of sexual interaction stopped between us and communication also ceased. If she wanted to tell me anything, she would write it on paper and put it on a table for me to see*. 
“In 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,” he said. 

The petitioner said that later, Sola 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 because he was approaching 50 and needed move on with his life. 

In his judgment, the President of the Court, Mr Adeniyi Koledoye, said that it appeared the love between the couple had since perished. He noted that the respondent, Sola 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,” he held.

Koledoye, therefore, dissolved the marriage and ordered the respondent to pay N200,000 to the petitioner.