- ‘No marriage ever existed between them’
A Customary Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at Dawaki in Abuja has barred Adaobi Alagwu, an ex-mistress of a former Chairman of defunct Skye Bank, Tunde Ayeni, from further parading herself as his wife.
In a ruling yesterday, a three-member panel of the court found that contrary to Adaobi’s claim, there was no evidence that any marriage ever existed between her and Ayeni.
The ruling was on a preliminary objection Adaobi raised to challenge the court’s jurisdiction to hear Ayeni’s petition in which he is praying the court to stop her from further using his name and to hold that they were not married and had no child together.
In the preliminary objection, Adaobi had argued that Ayeni, having admitted in the course of his testimony that he had a statutory marriage with his wife, Abiola, since 1994, his payment of dowry on her constituted a criminal offence under the Marriage Act, which the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain.
She prayed the court to decline jurisdiction in further hearing Ayeni’s petition and to dismiss it.
In the ruling, the court agreed with Ayeni that the case before it was not for the determination of the statutory marriage between him and his wife with whom he had statutory marriage.
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It said the case was for the declaration that upon the refund of the dowry that Ayeni earlier paid to Adaobi’s family (when she claimed to be pregnant for him), no form of marriage exists between them.
The court held that Adaobi, having admitted in her preliminary objection that the dowry had been refunded to Ayeni, there is no need for further evidence for the court to conclude that no customary marriage exists between them.
Contrary to Adaobi’s contention, the court held that under the Marriage Act, the only person who could sue for bigamy is Mrs. Abiola Ayeni (the petitioner’s authentic wife).
The court added that having found that no form of marriage exists between Adaobi and Ayeni, the court no longer possessed the jurisdiction to consider the reliefs contained in Adaobi’s counter-claim.
It dismissed the counter-claim, ruling: “This suit succeeds only to the existent that no marriage exists between the parties.”