Nigeria Content Online

At
last, Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau has formally opened his
campaign to rule Nigeria. Last Thursday, the governor, at a rally held
at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, made known his intention
to contest the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He became the first presidential aspirant
in the country to declare his intention to contest in the election.

In his speech, Mr. Shekarau berated the PDP
government, which he did not only say is inconsistent in policy
formulation and implementation, but has failed in the 12 years it has
controlled the government at the centre.

“The PDP has ruled this country for almost twelve
years, but they have nothing on ground to show, apart from
inconsistency,” Mr Shekarau said. “Day before yesterday it was National
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy where the states were
asked to be benchmark for best practice and federal government itself
refused to be benchmarked; yesterday it was seven point agenda and
today what? Nobody knows. You may ask what about tomorrow.”

The governor, however, promised that, if elected, he would turn things around in the country.

“I will do everything towards the realization of
our common aspiration for a better Nigeria,” he told his supporters. “I
will focus on ensuring security of life and property; making the right
move to provide reliable electricity supply; attaining self sufficiency
in food production; and improving schools to meet the standards of
quality for which Nigerian education was renowned.”

“It is time to ask Nigerians to participate in
shaping the future of our nation. It is time for transformational
politics, which is about electing someone committed to doing something
about the challenges facing our country; and not transactional
politics, which is about electing someone on account of instant or
future personal advantage,” the governor said.

But the large crowd that gathered in the
prestigious conference centre to listen to Mr Shekarau unfold his
agenda, may not be a sign of his smooth sail to Aso Rock. Undoubtedly,
there are bumps and potholes on the way that may not be easily filled
and are capable of halting his ambition.

First, the ANPP is practically non-existent in
most states from which Mr. Shekarau is expected to draw his votes to
power. As of today, the party controls only three states, namely Kano,
Yobe and Borno.

On the return of democracy 11 years ago, the ANPP,
then known as All Peoples Party, produced nine governors, all in the
north and over 30 senators and over a hundred members of the House of
Representatives drawn from both the northern and southern part of the
country. It also had a sizeable number of lawmakers in state
legislatures in the south. Today, the party can hardly boast of more
than five senators and 50 members in the House of Representatives, no
thanks to the defection of party faithful to other parties.

The ANPP, presumably the largest opposition party
in the country, has had the misfortune of being used by politicians to
ride to power, after which it is dumped. This occurs both at the level
of government and within the party. As a result, the party’s support
base is diminishing by the day, an ugly development that may affect Mr
Shekarau’s outing.

Closely related to that is the Muhammadu Buhari
factor. Although, Mr Shekarau is perceivably credible, not many can
deny the fact that he rode to power in 2003 on the popularity of the
former military head of state. Against all permutations, Mr Shekarau
dislodged the Musa Kwankwaso PDP administration and went ahead to
secure a second term in office, an achievement no Kano governor ever
made.

Mr. Buhari, the ANPP presidential candidate on two
occasions – 2003 and 2007 – has since the beginning of this year
floated his own party, Congress for Progressive Change, under which he
is expected to contest the presidential election. His supporters have
followed him to his new party abandoning Mr Shekarau. The CPC is not
only creating upset in Kano, but the entire north.

Cracks in unity

Yet, the crack in the Kano chapter of the ANPP is
another factor that may work against Mr. Shekarau. In Kano State, the
governor cannot claim to have full control of the party machinery in
the state he has ruled for about eight years. His “sin” is the
anointing of one of his commissioners, Salihu Sagir Takai as his
successor without allowing a free primary contest. To many, this action
did not provide a level playing field for all aspirants.

Already, some unhappy members have moved over to
the PDP and CPC where they hope to realize their ambitions. Indeed,
some say it was the major reason why Bashir Othman Tofa, also from
Kano, came out with his presidential campaign posters on a day Mr
Shekarau had his rally in Abuja.

Even the ANPP states of Yobe and Borno may not
work for Mr. Shekarau. The governors, Ibrahim Geidam and Ali Modu
Sheriff are reportedly not comfortable with Mr Shekarau’s ambition, a
reason they did not send representatives to his formal declaration for
the race.

Messrs Sheriff and Geidam may not be willing to
deploy their machineries to support the Kano State chief executive. And
if they do, they will not be committed to cause.

At the national level, Mr Shekarau cannot also
claim to have a granite support of the executives. Already, the party
is in disarray over the zoning of party offices, a reason attributable
to the frequent postponement of its national convention.

The Kano governor is said to be backing Harry
Akande, a billionaire businessman from Oyo State, for the position of
chairman as against the choice of other top notchers and members of the
party.

It is also believed that the outgoing national
chairman, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, who is insisting that the chairmanship slot
remains in the South East geo-political zone, is rooting for the
incumbent national publicity secretary, Emma Eneukwu from Enugu State.
Others, including the former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Sani, a
senator, want the position zoned to other parts of the country.

With these problems and many others, it is not
clear where Mr Shekarau will garner votes to dislodge the PDP
administration from Aso Rock.

Bolaji Khaleel, Mr. Shekarau’s campaign Director
General, thinks otherwise. He told NEXT last Friday that Mr Shakarau is
not depending on the votes of only members of the ANPP to emerge
President.

“Our chances are as bright as ever. We are not
relying on party members alone to win but Nigerians. How many
politicians are in the country; they constitute about five percent of
the population of Nigeria. You are not a politician and there are
millions like you who want good governance. Our well wishers are there
to vote and so we are not relying on the party members,” Mr Khaleel, an
indigene of Kwara State said.

The ANPP National Director of Publicity, Sabo
Mouhammad agrees with him. “He (Shekarau) is a party man and has
contributed immensely to the growth of the party.

Although, the party is yet to come out with
guidelines, the coming of Mr. Shekarau is a good omen. The party’s
chances are bright in view of the crisis in the PDP and also because
the PDP government is not performing.

Last
week, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, told a
Nigerian woman she cannot apply for her children without a letter from
the children’s father, and kindly offered to issue the documents as
soon as the paternal endorsement is received.

The shocked woman
asked the reason for her denial and the reason given by the immigration
officer at the consulate was that “in Nigeria, the children belong to
the man.” This incident is a pointer to the series of institutional
discriminations against women in the country, including the lack of
opportunities for men married to Nigerian women to take their wives’
nationality if they so desire, while foreign women married to Nigerian
men have no such problem.

Immigration
officials at the Lagos Passport Office, Ikoyi, confirmed that the
father’s consent is indeed a prerequisite while applying for the
passports of minors.

A senior official
at the office, who doesn’t want to be named because he did not have
clearance to speak on the issue, said this is done to prevent
situations where the mother of a child might want to take such a child
away from their father without the father’s knowledge, for instance,
while divorce is being ironed out.

“I have had cases here where fathers have denied being aware that their children have applied for passports,” he said.

However, Chibogu
Obinwa, the senior programme officer of BAOBAB, a women’s human rights
advocacy group, thinks the reason given by the Immigration Service
cannot hold water.

“It does not take
into consideration the circumstances which may have led the woman
wanting to take the children out of the marriage,” she said. “It could
be that the woman is in an abusive marriage, (to her and the children)”.

Another senior
official at the office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at
Alagbon Close, Lagos, who also requested anonymity, corroborated what
the officer said at the Passport Office.

“It is purely for
security reasons,” he said. “It is intended to check crimes such as
human trafficking and child labour.” When asked if the mother’s consent
is required when a father is the one applying for their passport, the
immigration official said this may not be necessary since Nigeria is a
patrilineal society.

“You must
understand that Nigeria is a patrilineal society and the child belongs
to the father. In a country like Ghana that is a matrilineal society,
this may be possible.”

Jiti Ogunye, a
Lagos-based lawyer, expressed displeasure at the practice of government
officials in the application of laws, which he said reinforce the
patriachal posture of the Nigerian society. Mr Ogunye said such
practices are unconstitutional, as they negates the principle of
equality of sexes and the abhorrence of discrimination enshrined in the
country’s constitution.

“It is
unconstitutional, because there should be equality of treatment of both
gender by the law and in the application of all laws and regulations in
Nigeria, discrimination should be avoided. You can’t discriminate
anybody on the account of sex, circumstances of birth, state of origin
and religion. The constitutional provision in section 34 of the
constitution writes against discrimination.

However, Mr Ogunye
believes that while the immigration has the power to request for the
father’s consent to corroborate the mother’s claims if she shows up
first at the passport office, such treatment should be meted out to the
man also if he is the one that shows up first at the passport office.
This, he said, will justify the principle of equality as stated in the
constitution.

When asked if the
immigration is not deliberately negating the tenets of the constitution
on equality of sexes, the senior immigration official at the
immigration office at Alagbon retorted, “Our job is to implement
government policies. It is the job of a court of competent jurisdiction
to decide what is constitutional or not.”

A history of discrimination

The Nigerian
immigration law has a long history of discrimination against women in
its administrative policy on the issuance of international passports.
Prior to June 2009, when Priye Iyalla-Amadi, the wife of the famous
Nigerian writer, Elechi Amadi, got what is being regarded today as a
landmark judgement against the NIS, even adult women were required to
get their husband’s consent before they can apply for international
passports.

In the case
between Priye Iyalla-Amadi versus the NIS, a federal high court in Port
Harcourt declared as unconstitutional the policy of the NIS which
compelled a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from
her husband as a condition for issuance of international passport.

NEXT can confirm
that since the judgement was issued, the NIS has jettisoned the policy
that requires married women to get their husband’s consent before they
are issued passports.

“I have not been
asked to produce any such thing. Not at all,” said Mrs. Osinsanya, an
applicant at the Lagos passport office in Ikoyi.

One too many Nigerians are carrying scars from police brutality
and extra-judiacial killings. One such person is 16-year-old Godwin Joshua, an
SS1 student, who was shot by yet-to-be-identified police officers on April 3,
2010 in Ajegunle.

April 3 was the day almost 2,000 youth marched the streets of
Ajegunle, protesting the death of another youth, Charles Okafor, who died two
days earlier following alleged police harassment and brutality.

Godwin remembers that day clearly. He remembers he did not pray.
He remembers when he woke in the morning, his plan was to do “my duty at home
and later I’ll go to work then go and play ball”. He even remembers the black
pair of jeans and blue shirt he wore on the day. And he remembers it was a
little after 10am when he became a victim of police brutality.

“My dad sent me on an errand so when I returned I took up my
tools to go to where they called me to work because I do furniture work. But
when I got there what I saw was unbelievable. People were running here and
there. The police were shooting and everyone was running. I also ran but the
next thing I found myself…,” Godwin pauses and shakes his head. It’s obvious
the memories are still fresh. He says the next thing he remembers is the pain
he felt in his legs and being at a police station and a group of Police
officers deciding his fate.

“Some of the police were saying that they should give me a gun
or machete so that they’ll take my picture, so that they will say maybe I am
among those that are fighting,” Godwin recounts, “but one of the police man
said I am too small for such a thing that they should just throw me somewhere
or take me to anywhere”.

The bullets had hit his right and left thighs, barely missing
his penis. Assuming he would not survive, he said, the police took him to the
Isolo General Hospital where they abandoned him. Family members found him three
days later.

Pain untold

“He was lying down on the bed. All his legs were swollen. I felt
serious tears in my eyes. I said to myself how can a man live like this in his
own country, not America, or anywhere else, but my own country. I don’t want to
say I regret being a Nigerian,” said Godwin’s father Udofia Joshua.

Godwin says “for those three days the only thing that came to my
mind was just for God to take my life because I was going through pain. Nothing
on earth amused me during that period.”

Unable to pay for hospital treatment, Mr. Joshua took his son
home and resorted to use of traditional medicine and family care.

Godwin’s cousin, Magdalene Joshua, a nurse, attended to him for
the four months, giving him injections and dressing his wounds. She wonders why
the police carried Godwin to the Isolo General Hospital instead of either the
General Hospital in Ajeromi or Apapa.

She recounts her experience attending to Godwin. “If you entered
the room (where the victim lay for months), it would be smelling due to the
odour. If you see the leg that time when I was doing the dressing. My
instruments like forceps, I used to put rope to pull it out. That time he could
not do anything,” she said.

“It is God that did it because for those four months, there was
no money. It is only if people come around they’ll give us small something,”
she narrated.

For the victim’s mother, Magdalene Joshua, her days of “worrying
sick and thinking a lot” are over.

She says she is thankful because other youths, like Babatunde
Olotu, were killed on the day of the protest. She says wants to see her son
“walk better like before, finish school and further his education.”

Godwin believes “only the rich can get justice in this country”.

But as he manages to walk, he says he doesn’t forget to pray
every day. He sees life as having given him a second chance. He is, however,
worried for his family.

“The Police abandoned me so I cannot count on them. All I can ask is help
for my family because they are down. Even the money they have spent on me they
borrowed it and till now they have not paid back. But I don’t trust the Police
to help.”

It is exactly a week since Comfort Monday, an inmate at the
Female Kirikiri Prison, Apapa, Lagos State, gave birth to her son at the Lagos
Island Maternity Hospital on August 1, 2010. Both mother and child are
scheduled to return to prison, where she has been since January 2010, courtesy
of the man she says is the father of her child.

But while Ms Monday might be nursing her child within the four
walls of the prison and pondering what the future holds, a NEXT investigation
reveals she may actually be a victim of injustice. Evidence currently at the
Kirikiri Magistrate court, Apapa, suggests Ms Monday’s age was purposely
manipulated to ensure she gets remanded in prison.

In May 2009, Nadum Nwitua, the alleged father of the baby,
travelled to Elele Alimini, Rivers State, where he met Ezekiel Monday, a poor
and single father barely managing to raise his nine children at a time, his
wife having left him over five years earlier. Mr Nwitua expressed his fondness
for his daughter and promised to give her a better life in Lagos.

“My pikin na 16 years when he come carry am say he go train am
for Lagos. Na because she no dey do anything for village, people talk say na
big man, that she go go better school, say make I let am follow am go,” said Mr
Monday in a telephone interview.

Altered court documents

From Mr. Monday’s account, his daughter is 17 this year.
Semi-literate and unable to write coherently, this was the age she told the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at the Oko Oba Police station.

James Dakarin, a police constable with force number 252661,
wrote her statement when she was arrested on January 24, 2010, after Mr Nwitua
alleged that she conspired with his security man, identified as Dala, and a
neighbour, Kennedy Enoma, to steal N295,000 from him. On the typed charge sheet
presented at the court in which Ms Monday and Mr Kennedy were accused of
conspiracy to steal and stealing, Ms Monday’s age was visibly altered with a
black pen from 17 to 18 years. This same alteration was discovered to have been
made on her statement paper which had the original age visibly cancelled and
replaced with 18 years.

For Lucas Koyejo, the South West Zone Head of the Legal and
Investigating Department of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
changing a word or figure in judicial documents is an offence “where the
intention is to falsify the document. If it can be proved that it was done unlawfully,
then it would amount to giving false information to pervert the course of
justice”.

Joseph Otteh, the executive director of Access to Justice, an
advocacy group promoting equal rights and justice, thinks the same and adds:
“If her age was falsified, it is to draw the court’s attention to the fact that
she is a minor fraudulently being tried as an adult. The court needs to see the
misrepresentation and take the matter through a juvenile track.”

Both lawyers say if the seeming wrongful detention of Ms Comfort
at the prison is established based on the fact that she is a minor, the next
step is “to know the extent of involvement of each party to the detention” and
appropriate punishment meted out. They also agree a civil suit for damages
could be considered.

This view is shared by the Lagos State police spokesperson,
Frank Mba. He said handwriting experts would be called to determine the
authenticity of the documents before the court.

“At the end of the day, if found to be altered, this would
amount to gross misconduct on the part of the officer and he will be tried in
orderly room and punished accordingly,” Mr Mba said, but did not clarify the
degree of punishment such an offence carries.

Another child marriage?

Mr Nwitua, in his statement, confirmed he was given the
responsibility of Ms Monday’s wellbeing by her father. He goes further to say
he brought her to Lagos for the purpose of marriage.

In his words: “I was given Comfort by the father, Monday, to
take to Lagos for marriage/training.” And according to Ms Monday, immediately
after they returned to Lagos, “that is when he started sleeping with me. It has
been long. At first, I was going to school but, after, I stopped. I was doing
housegirl for him.” By the time she told him she was pregnant, she said he had
become physically abusive.

The alleged sexual escapade was known by other members of Mr
Nwitua’s household located at Plot 2, Owode Street, Abule Egba, Lagos State,
which doubles as Mr Nwitua’s residence and business address – Gbedeco (Nig.) Ltd.
This was reported to the police by Mr Nwitua’s 15-year-old niece, Princess
Nwitua.

“She refused to go to school and when I asked, she said is not
feeling fine. She came to my room and said that she wants to go back to her
place in Port Harcourt. She said she did not want to live with my uncle again,
that my uncle is an evil man and that my uncle is sleeping with her,” Miss
Nwitua said.

Mr Koyejo says if Mr Nwitua has “actually been sleeping with her
as an underage, then his action amounts to rape, which carries a sentence of
life imprisonment under the Child Rights Law of Lagos State,” and “will be made
to face the full wrath of the law”.

A case of victimisation

On the instructions of Mr Nwitua, who had travelled to the
northern part of Nigeria on January 17, 2010, Ms Monday sold some compressors
to one Wahab, as identified by Mr Nwitua, for N95,000.

She handed the money to the security man, Dala, who Mr Nwitua
acknowledges kept his money and had access to the office drawer; who he “always
sometimes asked to collect money from there”; and where he alleges the N200,000
was stolen from.

When Mr Nwitua returned on January 23, 2010, Dala had packed his
belongings and absconded with the N95,000. He got Ms Monday arrested and told
the Police that Mr Enoma “is a bonafide friend of Dala and at the same time the
boyfriend of Comfort.” He said both Dala and Kennedy “always meet regularly and
sometimes for a long meeting either on my premises or at my gate”.

But this is at variance with the statement of his younger brother’s
daughter, Miss Nwitua, who told the police “I have not seen Ken before in our
compound before”.

A threatening
complainant

Through all this, Mr Nwitua, who instituted the case asking the
police to recover the money for him “and of course investigate any allegation
raised against me by all the parties involved”, has refused to talk to the
press and repeatedly threatened this reporter.

“Don’t go and publish anything that will cost your company a lot
of money o! Otherwise, I will not spare anybody in this matter,” Mr Nwitua at a
time said. The last time NEXT reached him, he said “Look, I warned you before.
You are looking for trouble. You are not listening,” before cutting the line.

Meanwhile, Ms Monday’s case has been adjourned four times and is
yet to be heard at the Kirikiri Magistrate Court, Apapa. No reason has been
given each time for the magistrate, Ope Agbe, not showing up in court.

It appears Mr Nwitua’s intention was to ensure Ms Monday
remained incarcerated for eight months, thus ensuring she gave birth to her
child away from public view and his wife and children, who are said to live in
the United Kingdom. The question remains, what’s next now that Ms Monday has
given birth?

Her case comes up September 27, 2010.

Abdullahi Isa adjusted the helmet on his head for the umpteenth
time. It was his first week at work as a commercial motorcyclist and, besides
struggling with communicating with passengers in English language, he was also
having problems fastening the oversized head gear on his head. Although, he
could not work out how old he is, he said he was sure he was born the year the
late head of state, Sani Abacha, died (that is, 1998). According to him, his
sole purpose of moving to Lagos, where he had been for two months, was to
search for greener pastures.

The rising cases of road accidents in the state, which are
traceable to underage commercial motorcyclists and bus drivers who ply the
roads, have become a cause for concern.

Young and driving

Penultimate Wednesday, a diesel-laden tanker overturned and
exploded into flames on the Liverpool bridge, Apapa. Two occupants, including
the driver were instantly roasted to death.

Although he could not determine the exact age of the tanker
driver, Wale Olayiwola, a fire officer who was at the scene of the inferno,
attributed the cause to the situation where “very young boys” are allowed to
drive tankers and articulated vehicles.

“It is disheartening to see these young and inexperienced boys
driving trailers and tankers. I don’t know who granted them driving licences
that allowed them to drive vehicles loaded with sensitive and highly volatile
products,” said Mr. Olayiwola, the chief fire officer of the Nigeria Ports
Authority.

A public analyst, Gabriel Giwa-Amu, said that it is unreasonable
for an inexperienced person to ply the highways. “But if you say the
youthfulness of the motorist, the driver, or the commercial motorcyclist is an
issue, I will say no. The fact that the man is young does not make it a crime
or improper to ply the road because there is an age limit to which a person can
be said to be allowed to drive,” said Mr. Giwa-Amu, a Lagos-based private legal
practitioner.

Road safety awareness

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in conjunction with
celebrity special marshals and four nongovernmental organisations had, on
February 20 this year, initiated the child-safety campaign in Lagos State.

“It was because of the concern over the safety of younger people
like that, we call them under aged people who, of course, have a right to ride,
drive or be driven. And the whole essence of that is how do we raise
awareness?” Said Jonas Agwu, the Lagos State Sector Commander of the FRSC.

“What we were trying to emphasise was that the family, religious
organisations and everyone in the society has a responsibility to ensure that
these young people are properly guided.

“Nobody should capitalise on the fact that because you want to
do business, you take a child that is under aged and ask him to do certain
things,” said Mr. Agwu.

According to the National Road Traffic Regulation Act of 2004,
it is illegal for anybody who is under 18 to drive a vehicle or to ride a
motorcycle. But being able to determine the age of a driver or motorcyclist by
looks seems to be a major challenge for the traffic officials.

“In keeping with that,” Mr. Agwu continued, “we carry out our
enforcements targeting under aged drivers and riders. Of course, we know that
sometimes there are challenges because you cannot determine the age of a person
by merely looking at the person,” said Mr. Agwu.

“In most cases, when we suspect that the person is under 18,
what we do is we impound the vehicle, impound the bike, and insist that the
person should bring proof, so that we have a document that we can use in
determining whether the person who is arrested is truly under age or not before
we go ahead with enforcement.”

Monitoring road users

Mr. Giwa-Amu blamed road accidents on irresponsible road users
and poor monitoring from road monitoring agencies. “The commercial motorcyclists
are the most reckless beings that ever exist. Not because of the area they are
coming from, but because once they are able to step on the clutch and the Okada
moves, they feel that they can ride the Okada anywhere anyhow. But normally,
these people are supposed to be subjected to training and evaluation,” he said.

A major area that needs to be looked into, according to Mr.
Giwa-Amu, is the tendency for drivers to jump into any type of vehicle,
irrespective of the class of vehicle under which their licences were issued.
“If you say you are licenced to drive a lorry, it does not give you the licence
to drive a truck of a higher weight. If you are 18 years old and you are
licenced to drive a car, you are prohibited from driving a truck, especially
one carrying fuel or any inflammable object, because it endangers the public.

“And then there is always this periodic test the vehicle
inspection office is entitled to carry out for a truck driver to ensure that he
is still of that mental competence or ability to drive that truck of that
grade. But all these things have collapsed, once the road safety issues a
licence, it is presumed to be for three or four years, they are not concerned
about your mental stability.” According to Mr. Agwu, the agency comes down hard
on drivers who possess invalid driving licences.

“When we ask do you have a valid driver’s licence? A valid
driver’s licence could be regarded as an ambiguous question in the sense that
you might be thinking that all we are saying is that, do you have a current
licence? But much more than that, we are asking do you have the licence that
truly specifies and gives you the right to ride that thing that you are
moving?” Stressed Mr. Agwu.

He also said that the FRSC has started a programme which
specifies that anybody who is applying for a licence must have attended a valid
and approved driving school.

“As I speak to you now, if you apply for a driver’s license here in Lagos
and you are applying for the first time and you never went to a driving school
approved by the government, you will not be able to pick a driver’s licence.”

A 30-year-old woman, Mutiat Lawal, on Thursday
pleaded with a grade A Customary Court, in Ikorodu, Lagos, to dissolve
her marriage to Saka Lawal, as she is married to another man.

The petitioner told the court that
Lawal had not been taking care of her and the three children of the
marriage aged six, five and two years.

“My husband divorced his former wife
who had five children for him and I trained all the children, including
our three children, but in spite of this, he refused to support me.

“I married another man just last week
because he gives me attention although he lost his wife recently, but
he has three children,” Mutiat said.

Lawal, 56, a textile worker, consented
to the dissolution of their six-year-old marriage. He told the court
that his wife packed into another man’s house last week with their
three children. “The court tried its best to reconcile our differences
but my wife has an ulterior motive. Apart from the court’s effort, she
delivered a baby on July 20, and packed into another man’s house.

“I regret ever marrying her because she is lazy and never appreciative of all my assistance towards the family,” Lawal said.

He offered to pay the N6,000 proposed
by the respondent for the upkeep of their children to facilitate the
dissolution of their marriage.

The Court President, Remi Adesanya,
said all efforts by the court to reconcile the couple had become
abortive, since the petitioner had married another man.

“The court has no option than to dissolve the union,” Adesanya said.

He, however, adjourned the case till August 12 for judgment.