A retiree, Sani Yakubu, has sued his wife’s grandmother, Hajiya Fatima, at a Shari’a Court sitting in Rigasa, Kaduna, for refusing to allow his wife to return to his house.
The complainant told the court that his wife, Sumayya Sani, had left their matrimonial home in December 2024, almost two months after she gave birth.
“My wife told me that she was going to meet some of her relatives and then go back home because she couldn’t continue staying with me.
“She later said I should write a divorce letter. When she didn’t come back home that day, I went to her family’s house the following day and her grandmother insisted I give her a divorce letter,” he said.
He prayed the court to intervene in the matter and compel Fatima to allow his wife to return to her matrimonial home.
On her part, the defendant told the court that she refused to allow her granddaughter to return to the complainant because he didn’t provide her food and failed to slaughter a ram after she gave birth to a baby.
Yakubu, however, denied not providing food for his wife, but agreed to not slaughtering a ram when she delivered a baby due to financial constraints.
When asked if what her grandmother said was true, the wife, who was also in court, answered in the affirmative, insisting that her husband was financially buoyant but just refused to provide for her.
“It is my decision not to go back to him and my grandmother supported me. I didn’t love him in the first instance; she was the one who insisted that I should marry him.
“Anytime I asked for money, he would say he didn’t have but he would send money to his girlfriend, maintaining that he was going to marry another wife,” she said.
The Judge, Malam Muhammad Adamu, ordered Sumayya to return to her matrimonial home, saying
not slaughtering a ram for the baby was not a tangible reason for divorce.
He ordered the complainant to continue to persuade his wife by behaving well to her and the child until she returned to her matrimonial home.
