A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Tuesday, asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to dismiss the N800million suit filed against him by his estranged wife, Precious Chikwendu.
The woman had in a fundamental rights enforcement suit against the ex-minister demanded N800 million as damages.
The Inspector-General of Police and some officers of the Nigeria Police Force were listed as respondents in the suit.
Other respondents in the suit were the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and CSP James Idachaba, Officer-in-Charge, Legal (CID), FCT Command.
She accused the respondents of intimidation and harassment during the pendency of the suit for the custody of her four children.
She is asking the court to restrain the IGP and his officers and men from intimidating and harassing her in any form pending the hearing and determination of her suit seeking the custody of the children.
However, in a counter-affidavit filed by his lawyers, Fani-Kayode asked the court to dismiss the suit for lack of merit.
He described the application as an abuse of the court process.
According to the ex-minister, the 23-paragraph supporting affidavit filed by Precious was concocted and presented by subterfuge in order to mislead the court and frustrate the administration of justice.
He said: “I know that the instant suit is nothing but a smokescreen intended to avoid the long arm of justice and to malign me.
“There is no merit whatsoever in this suit, which was filed in abuse of court and judicial process.
“It is in the interest of justice to dismiss this suit for lacking in merit.
“I conscientiously depose to this counter-affidavit from facts within my personal knowledge, and in good faith, believing same to be in accordance with the Oaths Act currently in force.”
On the alleged separation from her children, Fani-Kayode insisted that his ex-wife opted to leave her matrimonial home and consciously abandoned the children.
The ex-minister added: “As a fact, it is not surprising that Precious is capable of such reckless abandonment, because whilst she was with me in the house, she employed 12 in-house nannies to cater to the children, excluding supervisors and nurses who equally attended to them.
“She did not at any time extend maternal care to the children, for the reason that she had a medical condition which deprived her of any filial bond with them. She deprived the children of the natural sucks or breast milk, also on account of the need to preserve her body shape, coupled with a contrived medical condition which she claimed would not permit her to breastfeed them.”
