This was a petition of a husband against his wife for the dissolution of their marriage celebrated on the 23rd January, 1958, in London on the grounds of desertion and living apart of the parties.

The court was satisfied:-

(i) that there was no cohabitation between the parties from 1958 to 1963;

(ii) that the parties met and saw each other briefly in 1963 when the petitioner returned to Nigeria but was not satisfied that they cohabited before the petitioner returned to England later that year;

(iii) that there was no cohabitation between the parties between 1963 and 1966 when the petitioner returned to Nigeria finally;

(iv) that the respondent lived on and off with the petitioner at Ibadan from August, 1966, till about November, 1967, when one of the women that came into the petitioner's life had a baby for him, although the respondent still retained her flat in Mr Odunsi's house at the Challenge in Ibadan where she resided most of the time;

(v) that as a result of the birth of the baby in November, 1967, who died four days later, there was serious disagreement between the parties which led to the petitioner leaving Ibadan for Lagos in January, 1968;

(vi) that it was never the intention of the respondent to resume cohabitation with the petitioner in Lagos in January 1968, although she visited his flat in Lagos occasionally to make trouble with him;

(vii) that on or about August, 1968, the petitioner committed adultery with the other woman who is now living with him and who had since had two issues for him;

(viii) that at least since August, 1968, there was no evidence that the respondent, had shown any intention of resuming cohabitation with the petitioner although the parties had lived apart since January, 1968;

(ix) that, at least, since August, 1968 the respondent had deserted the petitioner and that the marriage had irretrievably broken down.

HELD:

Section 15(2)(d) of the Matrimonial Causes Decree, 1970, provides for the dissolution of a marriage on the ground that it has irretrievably broken down if the respondent had deserted the petitioner for a continuous period of, at least, one year immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. In this case, the period from August, 1968 to the 30th of April, 1970, when the petition was deemed to have been presented for the purpose of this ground within the meaning of section 98(3) of the Decree, was definitely more than a year. Consequently, this ground for dissolution had been proved and the marriage between the parties ought to be dissolved on that ground alone.

Decree Nisi ordered:

Decree referred to:

Matrimonial Causes Decree Sections 15(2)(d); 15(2)(f); 98(3)

PETITION FOR DIVORCE

Adeoti, for Akinyele for the Petitioner.

Holloway, for the Respondent.

Kazeem, J.:-This is the petition of a husband against his wife for the dissolution of their marriage celebrated on the 23rd January, 1958, at the Register Office in the District of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington, London, England, as evidenced by the marriage certificate exhibit A.

Shortly after the marriage, the respondent left London for Nigeria in 1958 and it is alleged in the petition that there was no cohabitation between the parties. However, both spouses are now domiciled in Nigeria.

There is no issue of the marriage.

The amended Petition contained several allegations of cruelty by the respondent as well as a charge of desertion and the assertion that both parties have lived apart for a period of three years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition. The Amended Answer, however, denied all the allegations contained in the petition.

It is not disputed that immediately after the marriage on 23rd January, 1958, the respondent left for Nigeria, but whereas the petitioner said that she promised to be away for only three months the respondent said that she made no such promise and as a matter of fact she did not return to England at all until the petitioner came to Nigeria on holidays in 1963. Thereafter a Customary Engagement of the respondent was celebrated by the petitioner's family in 1963 before the petitioner returned to London after a period of six weeks. He later returned to Nigeria finally on completion of his studies in June, 1966, and he thereafter took up an appointment with the University Teaching Hospital in Ibadan as a Medical Practitioner.

The petitioner testified that since his return to Nigeria in 1966, and until the presentation of the petition in February, 1969, the respondent never lived together with him either at Ibadan or at Lagos where he is now resident. Evidence was also adduced that the respondent maintained a separate flat at Ibadan in the house of one Mr Odunsi where she was living and that since the time of the marriage she has been using her maiden name of Miss Ogunmokun.

The respondent, however, testified that at all material times she lived together with the petitioner at various addresses in Ibadan until he left for Lagos in January 1968, on the pretext that he was going away on leave. She further said that it was when the petitioner did not return that she made enquiries and discovered that he had already taken up an appointment in Lagos in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. She thereafter came to Lagos and with some difficulties, she found out the petitioner's address and went there to see him. She said that later that day, the petitioner's mother came to the house and made trouble with her with the result that she had to go to her mother's place. She said further that the petitioner later came to her mother's place and persuaded her to stay there until she could be reconciled with her mother-in-law.

It is also common ground between the parties that two other women had come into the marriage between January, 1967, and the time of the presentation of the petition in February, 1969, and that one of them had been living with the petitioner since January, 1968, and she has already had two issues for him.

The allegations of cruelty made in the petition were not pursued at the trial but issues were joined on the other two grounds of desertion and the living apart of the parties.

These two grounds were not contained in the original petition which was filed on 24th February, 1969, but they were included in the amended petition filed on the 30th April, 1970, and by virtue of section 98(3) of the Matrimonial Causes Decree, 1970 (herein-after called the Decree) the date of the presentation of the petition with respect to the two grounds would now be 30th April 1970.