A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Friday ordered Aminu Atiku and his ex-wife, Ummi Bolori, to agree on the monthly upkeep allowance he would be paying for the two children of the severed union.
Justice Kazeem Alogba described the dispute by the estranged couple over the N250,000 per month as ordered by a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, to be paid by Mr Atiku as a waste of time.
Mr Atiku, son of a former Vice-President, Abubakar Atiku, had approached the court to suspend the N250,000 child allowance, describing it as “onerous”.
He argued that he was already satisfying all his children’s needs, a view which was disputed by Ms Bolori.
In his ruling, Justice Kazeem Alogba upheld Mr Atiku’s application, noting that he had presented evidence to show that he had been “substantially meeting” the educational, medical, feeding and other needs of the ex-couple’s daughter, Ameera, 11, and the son, Aamir, 7.
Mr Alogba held: “I am satisfied that the applicant has very substantially complied with the lower court’s order. I grant the stay of execution pending the determination of the appeal.”
The judge, further, urged counsel in the case, Messers M.O Enitan for Mr Atiku and N. E. Okoh for Ms Bolori, to advise their clients to put heads together to arrive at a reasonable sum in the children’s “interest instead of wasting time on litigating the appeal”.
He adjourned hearing of the substantive suit until June 14.
The ruling followed an appeal filed by Mr Atiku seeking to upturn, among others, the Jan. 10 decision of Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye of the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court which granted Bolori full custody of both children.
Ms Bolori, daughter of a Maiduguri businessman, Bukar Bolori, had married Mr Atiku in Ghana in 2007, and by 2011, the couple had separated.
On October 18, 2017, Chief Magistrate Ayeye temporarily remanded Mr Atiku in a transit cell within the court’s premises after citing him for alleged contempt.
Mr Atiku had allegedly kept Aamir from his mother, contrary to an October 11, 2017 order of the court.
There was further a drama at the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court on January 10 following Chief Magistrate Ayeye’s judgment.
The boy’s mother claimed that Mr Atiku snatched Aamir and drove off with him.
NAN also reports that the issue was, however, resolved the following day when Amir was handed over to Ms Bolori at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja.
NAN
