A Grade A Customary Court sitting at Mapo, Ibadan, has dissolved a four-year-old cohabitation between Oluwaferanmi Michael and Segun Michael over alleged home abandonment and irresponsibility.
Oluwaferanmi had filed for dissolution of the relationship against her partner.
The President of the court, Mrs O.E. Owoseni, held that the parties were free to go their separate ways in the interest of peaceful living.
Owoseni ruled that the relationship was a mere cohabitation and not a valid customary marriage, as no bride price was paid.
She said the petitioner testified that the respondent did not pay any bride price to her parents, adding that the parties only conducted a church wedding.
The court granted custody of the two children, aged five and three, to the petitioner on the grounds that they were minors in need of their mother’s care and protection.
Owoseni ordered Segun to pay N50,000 monthly for the children’s feeding and to take responsibility for their education, medical bills and general welfare.
She also restrained him from harassing, threatening or interfering with the petitioner’s private life.
Earlier, Oluwaferanmi, a teacher, told the court that she was fed up with the respondent’s conduct and was no longer willing to continue the relationship.
She alleged that when their second child was two months old in 2022, Segun said he would shuttle between Lagos and Ibadan for pastoral work, but stopped coming home by September 2022.
According to her, he abandoned her and the children and failed to cater for their welfare, giving them only N2,000 once since then.
She added that their first child is a sickle cell patient who requires special care.
The respondent was absent in court.
The bailiff told the court that hearing notices had been served on him on several occasions, but he failed to appear.
