Lagos State Commissioner for Establishment, Training, and Pensions, Mrs Ajibola Ponnle is currently enmeshed in a divorce before a Lagos High Court, Igbosere.
In the “Petition for the Decree of Dissolution of Marriage” she filed before the court, the Lagos Commissioner seeks to divorce her husband of 22 years, Michael Ponnle, CEO of defunct Origin Oil & Gas The marriage produced three children, all boys.
In her evidence in chief before the trial judge, Justice Lateefah Okunnu, on February 4, 2020, Ajibola, a chartered accountant admitted that she had left her matrimonial home, and now co-habits with her lover, one Segun Bamidele who lives four streets away from her matrimonial home in Banana Island, Lagos.
In the amended petition she filed before the court, she stated that eight years after she got married to her husband, he changed his behavior towards her in a manner as leading to constant intimidation, coercion, and threats, seizure and and destruction of the petitioner’s personal belongings as well as emotional and physical abuse.
She stated that when she could no longer cope, she left her matrimonial home in Banana Island on January 9, 2016 after which the respondent moved her belongings to her mother’s house on the same day and forbade her from returning to the house.
She therefore urged the court to issue a decree of dissolution of the marriage. She further seeks an order of court to direct the respondent to pay for the educational, physical, and medical maintenance of the children, and a house in Banana Island Lagos, being the location the children are accustomed to, pursuant to section 70 of the Matrimonial Causes Act. She further wants the court to order the respondent to pay her the sum of N250 million for her maintenance pursuant to the act.
However, her husband the respondent denied the allegations made against him by his wife. He said that the petitioner first deserted her matrimonial home in January 2010 with their children because he insisted that the petitioner should perform her duties as a wife and mother, particularly at it relates to the upbringing of the children.
In the 49 paragraph deposed to by him, which also serve as answer to his wife’s petition before the court, the respondent denied ever incarcerating his wife, or preventing her from meeting work obligations.
He also stated that the petitioner preferred to come home late, long after the children must have gone to bed without making provision for their meals, a situation that necessitated him to employ cooks and stewards in their home.
When the matter came up on Wednesday, February 5, the respondent, led in evidence by his lawyers, Mr. Adebowale Kamoru and Mrs. Kehinde Daniels of Pinheiro LP told Justice Okunnu that he cannot afford the N250 million his estranged wife is asking for her maintenance, saying that his business has gone down.
Asked how he had been living, he said:
He however told the court that he was willing and ready to take care of his children, as they were his reason for still working. He particularly lamented that against his wish, his wife took their last born (name withheld) to the United Kingdom at the age of 10.
He said;
He mentioned that he has since been taking care of the children to the tune of five million on each of them and an additional five million for their maintenance, all amounting to N20 million per annum, last payment of which was just this January of 2020. He saysthat the sole reason he is working is to take care of his children.
When asked by Chief Bolaji Ayorinde SAN, the petitioner’s lawyer, whether he loved his children, he replied: “One million percent”. The petitioner’s lawyer thereafter attempted to tender as evidence, an e-mail which the petitioner’s first son sent to the respondent but his counsel objected.
Justice Okunnu in her ruling struck out the application to tender the letter, saying that what had happened between the parents was not the making of the children. She said it did not concern them and that they must not be made to suffer the consequences of the actions of their parents.
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