It was drama galore inside a court room on Wednesday as an estranged wife battled her husband word-for-word in a very controversial paternity case. According to the woman, she is a faithful wife and as such her husband cannot prove any allegation of infidelity against her, which could have caused him to reject the two-month old son she gave birth to “for him”.
Consequently, the woman, Sadiyya Shuaibu, urged a Kaduna Sharia Court II to compel her husband, Muhammad Aliyu, to accept the paternity of the baby and take full responsibility for his upkeep.
In her submission, Sadiyya said: “I am praying this court to compel Aliyu to accept the responsibility of fathering the child and catering for him. I also want the court to compel him to take full responsibility of the child in order to avoid destroying the boy’s future as a child born out of wedlock.”
But in a counter argument the husband, Muhammad Aliyu, denied fathering the child even though he was married to Sadiyya because, according to him, his wife started attending ante natal care barely two months into their marriage on the pretext that ‘it was important to begin early’.
He said he was surprised when his wife put to bed about five (5) months into their marriage, and thus interrogated her on the development, during which she confessed that she was impregnated by an undisclosed man before their marriage.
He told the court that she even apologised to him for the embarrassment, while stressing that “I cannot accept the boy’s responsibility as a father. She is already pregnant before we got married.”
The judge, Ibrahim Inuwa, said since the couple were making counter claims, the issue of paternity must be proved beyond reasonable doubt before the court could decide whether the child was born in or out of wedlock. He adjourned the matter to December 6, and ordered both parties to produce witnesses or evidences to support their claims in the next sitting.
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