A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, Lagos State on Friday ordered Aminu Atiku Abubakar and his ex-wife, Unmi 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’s over the N250,000 per month as ordered by a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos to be paid by Abubakar as a waste of time.
Aminu, son of a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, 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 Bolori.
In his ruling, Justice Alogba upheld Aminu’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.
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, M.O Enitan for Abubakar and N. E. Okoh for Bolori, to advice 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 Abubakar’s son seeking to upturn, among others, the January 10 decision of Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye of the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, which granted Bolori full custody of both children.
Bolori, daughter of a Maiduguri, Borno State businessman, Alhaji Bukar Bolori, had married Abubakar in Ghana in 2007, and by 2011, the couple had separated.
On October18, 2017, Chief Magistrate Ayeye temporarily remanded Abubakar in a transit cell within the court’s premises after citing him for alleged contempt.
He 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 Abubakar 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 Bolori at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja.