WHEN they exchanged marital vows on April 9, 2012, both lovebirds had great hopes and lofty plans for their future together. But fate had another plan and for Olawale Terry Ayodele particularly, it was a cruel plan indeed.
His fairy-tale marriage to former Victoria Ekwu Onoja, turned to despair, the kind only often read in books or seen in movies.
Olawale, 30, met Victoria, a petty trader, in one of the branches of a new generation gospel church in Lokoja, Kogi State capital. Every Sunday, both sat close to each other during worship services. It was not long when both of them bonded. It appeared theirs was friendship made from heaven.
The courtship lasted for three years and the lovebirds jumped over the tribal barriers between them and agreed to become husband and wife. Though both of them are from Kogi State, Olawale is an Okun man (the Yoruba-speaking side of the state) while Victoria is an Igala woman.
Throughout the three-year courtship, Olawale never had a premonition of what was to befall him. They planned and legalised their relationship through a traditional marriage, which was done with fanfare, with relations, parents, friends and well wishers in attendance. The event was one that residents of Etteh and its environs would not forget in a hurry, as Olawale, a businessman, deployed all his resources into it believing that, as is often said, it could only be done once in a lifetime.
Olawale recounts what happened to Saturday Tribune: “The traditional marriage took place on 9th day of April 2012; she left my house on October 2nd same year but gave birth to the baby boy on March 2013.
“The traditional marriage went on smoothly after which we started living peacefully, putting aside normal misunderstandings that we settled amicably. Nothing serious happened until I came back one day to find out she had packed out of my house to the place of one man she once introduced to me during courtship as her uncle.
“After she left, I informed her family and mine. Several meetings were arranged to allow her see reasons and return home with a two-month-old pregnancy. In one of the several meetings, her father said he would like to go back home and inform the elders of the family of the misunderstanding and feed us back later on the outcome. But he (Victoria’s father) called back later that the daughter said she was no more interested in the marriage and that he stood by her daughter’s decision.”
According to him, his own family immediately resigned to fate, consoling him that “God would provide my own wife for me.” But it appears that Olawale is not ready to leave everything to God, as he has vowed to fight his case to a logical conclusion using every legal means possible.
Olawale showed Saturday Tribune documents to the effect that the birth of the child was registered at the Federal Medical Centre in Lokoja, as well as other documents showing that his runaway wife had earlier registered for ante-natal care at the same medical centre.
He approached the Family Court of Kogi State (magisterial level) in the Kogi State Judicial Division in Lokoja, on September 26, praying the court to order scientific tests, including blood tests and DNA tests, to ascertain the paternity of the child.
He is also seeking an “order of the court specifying the period within which the blood or other samples of the son, the plaintiff and any other party alleged to be the father of the son is to be taken, and an order of the court specifying that the tests be carried out at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.”
Olawale is also seeking the court’s declaration that “the plaintiff (Olawale) is the bona fide and biological father of the boy (names witheld); that the plaintiff is entitled to the custody of his biological son and that the action of the second defendant taking custody of the boy at the expense of the biological father is improper, fraudulent, strange, illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, irregular, invalid, null and void.”
He is also seeking an “order restraining 1st and 2nd defendants to release the boy in issue to the custody of the plaintiff being the real biological father, and a perpetual injunction restraining 1st and 2nd defendants, their agents and servants from doing anything derogatory or harmful to the welfare, health, well being of the child in issue.”
However, in an 18-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion No FCL13/13 sworn to on 27th day of September 2013, Olawale (the plaintiff) averred that “I am the husband of the 1st respondent by a traditional marriage which took place on the 9th day of April 2012 at Etteh in Olamaboro Local Government of Kogi State; that snapped photographs of my very self and the 1st respondent during the traditional marriage are hereby attached and marked Exhibit A and B;
“That the 1st respondent deserted me for the second respondent with the pregnancy as his casual paramour; that the 1st respondent was pregnant for me as at the time she deserted me; that the 2nd respondent harboured the 1st respondent with the pregnancy as his casual paramour; that the 1st respondent attended Federal Medical Centre Lokoja ante-natal for medical attention during the pregnancy period; that the 1st respondent was referred to labour ward at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, on the 26th day of March 2013;
“That the 1st respondent gave birth to (name withheld) on or about the 27th day of March 2013; that the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja ante-natal continuation notes is hereby attached and marked Exhibit C; that the gestation period of (child’s name withheld) favours me as his biological father; that the child is presently in the custody of the respondents; that I am still the husband of the 1st respondent as the dowry paid to her parent is not yet refunded; and that it would be in the interest of justice to grant this application.”
However, counsel to the respondent, Osmond Onoja, who refused to speak on the motion on notice filed by Olawale’s counsel, Mr Gbemi Obademi, told Saturday Tribune that the issue would be settled out of court. In fact, in the presence of Saturday Tribune, Onoja booked an appointment with Olawale’s lawyer on the other side to kick-start the process.
He said the case had been creating bad blood among the parties involved and that if care was not taken, the bitterness and embarrassment it would generate would live with them for life.
“My intention is to settle the matter out of court because of the embarrassment it will cause them, and most especially the future of the child in dispute,” he said, adding: “I see my practice as one that should build relationship and not to destroy relationship as everything is not about money. With this case, enmity might run for life, but if we are able to settle it out of court, there is no need for enmity to continue.
“How many years are we going to spend in this life that we will create enmity? It is godly to settle misunderstanding.”
He also believed that the amicable settlement would reduce the money both parties would spend on unnecessary litigation, expressing the belief that the out-of-court option would work and that at the end of the day, every party to the matter would be happy.
Source: Tribune
