Lagos couple in court over paternity of children
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By Onozure Dania
It was love in the air seven years ago, when Mr and Mrs Abraham Okoro got married and the marriage was the talk of town. If some one had told them and the well- wishers present at the ceremony then that the relationship will go sour and finally end in court, no one would have believed it.
Today, the union which was blessed with two kids, is been dragged in the mud.
Mrs Adedoyin Okoro (Nee Ajaba), 33, while still legally married to Abraham Okoro, who paid her dowry in 2006 and had an elaborate traditional marriage, purportedly deserted the marriage and allegedly went to marry one Babatunde Ogunmefun, 38, in 2008 and in 2009, had a baby girl for her new husband.
Not done with, the said Mrs Adedoyin Okoro (Nee Ajaba) dragged her husband, Mr Abraham Okoro to court over the issues of paternity of their kids.
Crime Alert gathered that the couple lived together between 2000 and 2007 and gave birth to two children in Nigeria and USA respectively before the wife deserted the marriage for Ogunmefun, who she had a daughter for in 2009.
Traditional rites for cleansing
It was also learnt that between 2010 and 2012,the wife came back to beg her estranged husband for reconciliation, but was told that for her to be accepted into her matrimonial home, she would have to perform some Benin traditional rites for cleansing, which she conceded to demonstrate her love and loyalty.
Eventually, she moved back to Okoro's house on February 14,2012 and they started living together as husband and wife, until May 17,2012, when she approached an Ikeja High Court to file an action to nullify her marriage with her second husband, Mr Ogunmefun before Justice Oyewole, which she deposed an affidavit.
However, the story took another dramatic turn when the same estranged wife moved out of the first husband's house again on November 3, 2012 and wrote him a letter through her lawyer Taiwo and Taiwo in December 2012 claiming that the two children she had earlier were not for Okoro.
It was gathered that on March 26, 2013, Okoro got a court summon and the petitioners were Adedoyin Ogunmefun and Babatunde Ogunmefun, claiming that the children of the first marriage were not his own. They allegedly presentedly a fake DNA result and forged birth certificates purported to embarrass Okoro and his children. Though the matter had since been struck out by magistrate A. A Oshoniyi, of Surulere Magistrate Court on May 8, 2013 and similarly dismissed before Justice B. A Oke-Lawal of an Ikeja High court on August 7, 2013.
Earlier, the estranged woman and her second husband, Ogunmefun, were detained in Kirikiri prison after they were unable to fulfill the bail condition granted them by the magistrate court.
However, Mr. Abraham Okoro, her first husband, who felt he was psychologically traumatized latter filed a civil suit before an Ikeja High Court against the defendants. Joined as defendants in the suit were the wife, Babatunde Ogunmefun and the 75- year old mother of the first defendant, Mrs Comfort Ajaba.
The claimant was asking the court to declare that the act of the second defendant (Ogunmefun) in contracting a purported marriage with the first defendant and actively supported by the third defendant, while the marriage between the claimant and the first defendant was still on, is unlawful and injurious to the claimant which has occasioned for special and general damages, harm and psychological trauma it has caused the claimant.
Special and general damages
He was also asking the court to award the sum of N500 million against the defendants for special and general damages made up as follows, N200 million, being general and special against the first defendant for damages of libel and slander or malicious falsehoods contained in series of text messages sent by the first defendant through her phone, to the claimant between December 29 2012 and April 9, 2013.
In a counter affidavit filled by the defendants through their counsel Kunle Adegoke, the defendants asked the court to dismiss and strike out the claimants application filed on August 20, 2013, on the grounds that the suit of the claimant is incompetent. The defendants further objected on the grounds that the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the matter. However, the matter was adjourned till December 4, 2013, for hearing.
Meanwhile, the marriage nullification filed by Adedoyin Okoro against her second husband, Babatunde Ogunmefun,which is still on going at the Ikeja High court before Justice J.O.K Oyewole, has now been transferred to a new trial Judge Justice Oyekan Abdullahi.
It was love in the air seven years ago, when Mr and Mrs Abraham Okoro got married and the marriage was the talk of town. If some one had told them and the well- wishers present at the ceremony then that the relationship will go sour and finally end in court, no one would have believed it.
Today, the union which was blessed with two kids, is been dragged in the mud.
Mrs Adedoyin Okoro (Nee Ajaba), 33, while still legally married to Abraham Okoro, who paid her dowry in 2006 and had an elaborate traditional marriage, purportedly deserted the marriage and allegedly went to marry one Babatunde Ogunmefun, 38, in 2008 and in 2009, had a baby girl for her new husband.
*Okoro and his estranged wife
Crime Alert gathered that the couple lived together between 2000 and 2007 and gave birth to two children in Nigeria and USA respectively before the wife deserted the marriage for Ogunmefun, who she had a daughter for in 2009.
Traditional rites for cleansing
It was also learnt that between 2010 and 2012,the wife came back to beg her estranged husband for reconciliation, but was told that for her to be accepted into her matrimonial home, she would have to perform some Benin traditional rites for cleansing, which she conceded to demonstrate her love and loyalty.
Eventually, she moved back to Okoro's house on February 14,2012 and they started living together as husband and wife, until May 17,2012, when she approached an Ikeja High Court to file an action to nullify her marriage with her second husband, Mr Ogunmefun before Justice Oyewole, which she deposed an affidavit.
However, the story took another dramatic turn when the same estranged wife moved out of the first husband's house again on November 3, 2012 and wrote him a letter through her lawyer Taiwo and Taiwo in December 2012 claiming that the two children she had earlier were not for Okoro.
It was gathered that on March 26, 2013, Okoro got a court summon and the petitioners were Adedoyin Ogunmefun and Babatunde Ogunmefun, claiming that the children of the first marriage were not his own. They allegedly presentedly a fake DNA result and forged birth certificates purported to embarrass Okoro and his children. Though the matter had since been struck out by magistrate A. A Oshoniyi, of Surulere Magistrate Court on May 8, 2013 and similarly dismissed before Justice B. A Oke-Lawal of an Ikeja High court on August 7, 2013.
Earlier, the estranged woman and her second husband, Ogunmefun, were detained in Kirikiri prison after they were unable to fulfill the bail condition granted them by the magistrate court.
However, Mr. Abraham Okoro, her first husband, who felt he was psychologically traumatized latter filed a civil suit before an Ikeja High Court against the defendants. Joined as defendants in the suit were the wife, Babatunde Ogunmefun and the 75- year old mother of the first defendant, Mrs Comfort Ajaba.
The claimant was asking the court to declare that the act of the second defendant (Ogunmefun) in contracting a purported marriage with the first defendant and actively supported by the third defendant, while the marriage between the claimant and the first defendant was still on, is unlawful and injurious to the claimant which has occasioned for special and general damages, harm and psychological trauma it has caused the claimant.
Special and general damages
He was also asking the court to award the sum of N500 million against the defendants for special and general damages made up as follows, N200 million, being general and special against the first defendant for damages of libel and slander or malicious falsehoods contained in series of text messages sent by the first defendant through her phone, to the claimant between December 29 2012 and April 9, 2013.
In a counter affidavit filled by the defendants through their counsel Kunle Adegoke, the defendants asked the court to dismiss and strike out the claimants application filed on August 20, 2013, on the grounds that the suit of the claimant is incompetent. The defendants further objected on the grounds that the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the matter. However, the matter was adjourned till December 4, 2013, for hearing.
Meanwhile, the marriage nullification filed by Adedoyin Okoro against her second husband, Babatunde Ogunmefun,which is still on going at the Ikeja High court before Justice J.O.K Oyewole, has now been transferred to a new trial Judge Justice Oyekan Abdullahi.
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