A 29-year-old woman, Rahma Yakubu, on Wednesday dragged her estranged husband, Jibril Bajeh, to a Sharia Court sitting in Magajin Gari, Kaduna, over paternity of their three-year-old son, Abdulhalim.
Rahma told the court that Bajeh abandoned her when her pregnancy was eight months, following a misunderstanding between them.
She told the court that she and her newborn baby lived with her brother after Bajeh cut off all communication with her.
“My mother called him to inform him about my delivery and he told her that he won’t accept the child until he confirms it through a DNA test,” she told the court.
Rahma alleged that their parents had also tried to resolve the matter, asking the husband to agree to take responsibility of the child’s welfare pending the outcome of the paternity test.
The complainant also asked the court to dissolve the marriage since her husband had verbally divorced her.
In defence, the man told the court that he divorced his wife in 2015 due to infidelity, a situation that made him deny the child after he was born.
The Judge, Musa Sa’ad-Goma, ruled that “since the defendant has confirmed divorcing his wife, the court shall present a divorce certificate to the complainant.”
Sa’ad-Goma further ruled that the legitimacy of the child will be discussed with the parties’ guardians on January 24.
