Court dissolves 4-year-old marriage over missing placenta

The Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, on Friday dissolved a four-year-old marriage between Musa Busari and his wife, Kafilat over issues of missing placenta and irresponsibility. 

President of the court, Mr Ademola Odunade, held that there was little or nothing the court could do on the matter as evidence had shown that the couple had agreed to part ways over irreconcilable differences. Dissolving the marriage, therefore, Odunade ordered that the man should be giving N3,000 as monthly feeding allowance for each of the two children produced by the union.

 He directed that Kafilat should have the custody of the twin children “because they are still legal minor while Busari should be responsible for their education, health and other forms of welfare’’. Earlier, Kafilat had told the court that her husband and his relatives collaborated to steal her baby’s placenta for ritual. 

“Shortly before moving into Busari’s home in 2012, I was already pregnant with a set of twins for him. “It happened that I gave birth to one of the two children in my father’s home, and on the following day after moving to his home, I had the second child. “I was very weak because I was in pains, but I discovered that the placenta that came with the child was nowhere to be found. “I asked his relatives that were around me, but they gave me no useful information as to the whereabouts of the placenta.

 “It is the same question I have continued to ask till today, but the only answer Busari gave me is to forget it and to make it a secret between his family and me,’’ she said. She claimed that because of the missing placenta, Kehinde, the second child, had been having nightmares. “He shouts in his sleep, regularly fall sick and many more spiritual problems have befallen him as we are regular visitors to the hospital. “Worst still, Busari does not show any form of responsibility either towards the children or I, and instead, fights me. “Busari and his relatives are diabolic; the only solution is separation,” Kafilat said. Busari, who welcomed the divorce, however, denied the allegations against him. 

He told the court that he was a peace-loving husband who did everything within his capacity to cater for Kafailat and the children. “Kafilat is just out to tarnish my image due to her greed. “On the issue of catering for the sick child, Kafilat wanted me to start going the fetish way and I made her to understand that it is only prayer that could do it as an Alfa,” Busari, an Arabic teacher, said.

 vanguard