MR. Josiah Ayo Olabiwonnu V. Mrs. Stella Oluranti Olabiwonnu (2014)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

JAMES SHEHU ABIRIYI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Osun State High Court sitting at Ilesa delivered on the 1st March 2013. The Respondent as Petitioner filed a divorce petition against the Respondent now Appellant claiming the following reliefs:

a. A Decree of Dissolution of the marriage celebrated on the 1st day of July, 1989 at St Thomas Catholic Church, Ogotun-Ekiti, between the Petitioner and the Respondent on the grounds that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, cruelty, and attempted murder cum threat to life.

b. An Order restraining the Respondent, from threatening, assaulting, harassing, visiting and disturbing the Petitioner either in her rented apartment or permanent home or her place of work or any other place whatsoever.

c. An Order of the Court ejecting the Respondent from the Petitioner’s house lying, situate and being at No 1 Oluranti Olabiwonnu Close, Ijangiri Quarters, behind Nigerian Breweries Plc, Imo, Ilesa.

OR

An Order directing the Respondent to pay to the Petitioner the sum of Two Million and Three Hundred Thousand Naira (N2,300,000.00) being the total sum expended by the Petitioner on the house lying, situate and being at No 1 Oluranti Olabiwonnu Close, Ijangiri Quarters, behind Nigerian Breweries Plc, Imo Ilesa.

OR

An Order of the Court directing the Respondent to collect from the Petitioner the sum of Seven Hundred Thousand Naira (N700,000.00) being the total sum expended by the Respondent on the house lying, situate and being at No 1 Oluranti Olabiwonnu Close, Ijangiri Quarters, behind Nigerian Breweries Plc, Imo Ilesa.

d. An Order mandating the Respondent to be paying to the Petitioner the sum of N25,000.00 as monthly allowance for the up-keep and educational pursuit of the children.

The Respondent and Appellant were joined in marriage on 1st July 1989 at St. Thomas Catholic Church Ogotun Ekiti. According to the Petitioner/Respondent not long after the marriage, she discovered that the couple was not compatible. The husband was always beating her.

At times he would lock her up and thus prevent her from going to work. He was always suspecting her of going out with another man. She was even admitted in the hospital as a result of the beating. The Appellant even beat her sister and father who tried to intervene. She had to leave her house which she built when the husband poured hot water on her.

They both built the house. She was the one that bought the (plot) land in her husband’s name and her name. When she bought the land and started building, she was keeping the receipts with the husband to appease him and make him happy. The husband spent N700,000 on the building.

Although Mr. Olufemi Fafowora learned counsel for the Appellant at page 40 of the record of appeal stated that the appellant was only interested on the issue of the house, the Appellant nevertheless opposed the dissolution of the marriage because he invested in the wife and did not want to lose his investment. He also still loved the wife.