There was confusion in an Area Court in Ilorin when the judge sentenced a divorce-seeking woman, Adenike Aliyu to three weeks of community service for admitting that she committed adultery while her marriage to her husband was legal.
The presiding Judge, Hammad Ajumonbi while delivering his ruling, said the punishment would serve as a lesson to the general public and the respondent in the case.
“I am not inclined to discharge the respondent just like that.
“The respondent conceded to be impregnated by one Abdulazeez Asikolaye to produce another child while the marriage between her and the petitioner still subsists.
“The respondent is hereby sentenced to three weeks community service with effect from today,” the Judge ruled.
The respondent had on Feb. 10, 2023, filed for divorce, custody and maintenance of three children.
She told the court that she gave birth to three children for one Abdulfatai Ahmed, left him in 2021 and later gave birth to a fourth child for another man.
The marriage was dissolved on mutual agreement of the two parties but the ex-husband filed another case on March 27, 2023, for custody of the four children that Adenike Aliyu bore for him.
The former husband told the court that he named the fourth child.
”We still had sex after she left my house.
“I have a witness who will testify that the fourth child is mine,” he said.
The ex-husband later told the court that in the interest of justice and his children, he withdrew the complaint and agreed that the three children be in the custody of their maternal grandmother.