Divorce drama: I can’t feed them, says woman who abandoned 3 children in court

Yesterday, there was mild drama at an Idi-Ogungun Customary Court, Agodi, Ibadan, when a woman, Suriat Adewale, rejected custody of her three children, including a 12-month-old baby, saying she has no means of taking care of them.

The two other children are aged five and three.

Suriat had protested the court’s decision, granting her custody of the children in a divorce suit instituted by her husband, Suleiman Adewale.

The court did not, however, entertain her plea, a situation which made her to attempt to abandon the kids in court.

Earlier, Chief Mukaila Balogun, President of the court, had dissolved the union and ordered the three kids of the couple to be in the custody of Suriat.

Balogun said the kids were too young to be left in the custody of the husband, stressing that at that age, the mother was in the best position to take care of them.

He also ordered the plaintiff to pay N10,000 monthly to Suriat for the upkeep of the three children and for both parties to take responsibility of the kids’ welfare.

‘She abandoned her  matrimonial home’

In the suit, the husband asked the court to dissolve the 15-year-old union on the grounds that Suriat was disrespectful and had abandoned her matrimonial home for five months, leaving behind the three children.

Adewale told the court that Suriat packed out of her matrimonial home sometimes in September 2016 with the kids, but returned them last February.

He said: “I pleaded with her to allow the children stay with her for proper care, but she refused and asked me to look for a nanny for the children.

“It has not been easy for me since, because the third child was just seven months old when she abandoned the kids.

“I pray the court to dissolve the union and also give her custody of the children so that I would be able to face my business and have money to take care of them.”

I ran to avoid untimely death—Wife

In her defence, Suriat prayed the court not to dissolve the marriage, saying she left her matrimonial home nine months ago to avoid untimely death due to inhuman treatment by her husband.

Her words: “Adewale was in the habit of beating and accusing me of adultery. I decided to stay away from him; I intend going back to him when I see changes in his character.”

 

Source Vanguard News.