One Mohammed in Ibadan has told a Mapo Customary court in Ibadan that his wife, Tawakalitu Suleiman was mentally ill when he married her and had to chain her down to allow for medical treatment.
“I am local physician and she was brought to me as a patient. I cured her. I told her people that I will marry her and continue to cater for her and they agreed. Unfortunately, she still experiences the condition occasionally because she inherited it and so I had to take the baby from her to prevent his being harmed. I gave the child to my mother who takes good care of him,” he said.
Mohammed was defending himself yesterday in a divorce case brought by his wife over what she called seizure of their new baby.
Tawakalitu had told the court that her husband chained her down and took her baby to an unknown destination, saying: “I don’t exactly know why Mohammed treated me that way.
“Please, help me take my baby from him and let me go my way,” Tawakalitu had pleaded.
However, the President of the court, Mr. Ademola Odunade frowned at the act of seizing a three-month-old baby from the mother which he said constituted a crime against God and humanity.
“It is child abuse to deny such a baby access to his mother and wrong to also chain down the mother under any disguise. You are very lucky that other parties concerned in the matter have prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
“The case has already gone beyond mere marriage dissolution and has now attained a criminal nature. In any case, both of you are no longer husband and wife from today and Mohammed shall pay a monthly feeding allowance of N5,000 for the upkeep of the child,” the judge said.
This was even when witnesses, who appeared in court, also testified to the fact that Tawakalitu had a mental challenge. [myad]
