Court orders DNA test in child’s dispute

An Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta, has ordered that a Deoxyribonucleic Acid test be conducted on a four-year-old girl to determine who her father is.

The court gave the order following the insistence of a woman, Adetutu Balogun, that her husband, Ayodeji Balogun, was not the child’s father.

This prompted Ayodeji to bring a Motion on Notice through his lawyer, Mr. Tunde Tijani, asking Justice A.A Akinyemi, to order that a DNA test be carried out to resolve the dispute.

“The application is granted having not been opposed. It is ordered that a Deoxyribonucleic Acid test be conducted by the St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, on the child known as Esther Erioluwa/Eribukunle at the expense of the applicant, Mr. Ayodeji Balogun, within 30 days from today and the report forwarded by the hospital directly to the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Ogun State for the attention of this court,” the judged ruled.

Also, the court directed United Bank for Africa to furnish it with details of the monies allegedly sent by Greece-based Ayodeji through Western Union to his estranged wife.

At the commencement of the case, Adetutu, who gave birth to the girl after Ayodeji’s departure to Greece, denied ever receiving any money through the Western Union from her husband.

Justice Akinyemi explained that the resort to UBA became necessary in view of Adetutu’s denial of the receipt of the alleged monies, and the insistence of the Ayodeji that indeed Adetutu collected the monies through UBA.

The judge said, “The Managing Director of UBA Plc, Marina, Lagos, is hereby ordered to furnish to this court within 14 days from today a report confirming the recipient/person to whom all the money listed in Exhibits D, E-82 were paid, with dates, branch, and time of collection and also proof of identification shown by that or those persons.

“For this purpose, the registrar of the court is ordered to make the photocopies of the said exhibits and attach them to a copy of this order to be served on this said bank.  Case is adjourned to May 7 and 8, 2012, for further hearing.”

Earlier, in his evidence, Ayodeji, who flew in from Greece to give evidence, insisted that he was the father of the disputed child and that he sent money severally to his wife for her upkeep and the child’s.

But Adetutu, who was represented by her lawyer, Mr. S.A. Obafemi, in her suit number AB/221/2009, denied that the child belonged to Ayodeji, even as she denied collecting any money from her husband through the Western Union.

Adetutu had approached the court for the dissolution of the marriage on several grounds, among which is her claim that she and Ayodeji cohabited for only the first eight days of their marriage since 2004. 

 “In a very short period of the marriage between the parties, disagreements as to non-consummation of the marriage by the respondent between the parties, which hitherto was settled in a very short time, without much ado began to fester and drag on for days, most time deteriorating to the point of bitterness,” she claimed.

She said the couple stopped living together on November 2, 2004, “when the respondent (Ayodeji) travelled abroad without due notice to the petitioner on the pretext of going for a business trip.”

Adetutu said there were no children in the marriage as “the respondent throughout the marriage had been depriving the petitioner of sexual intercourse and eight days into the marriage, the respondent left the matrimonial home for overseas without due notice to the petitioner.

 “The respondent (Ayodeji) only had sexual intercourse with the petitioner two times throughout the duration or period of the marriage. The situation began to take a serious toll on the petitioner when it became apparent that due to the acts of the respondent, it had started to have impact on her job.”

But Ayodeji in his defence said his wife had told the court blatant lies.

While admitting some paragraphs of the petition, the Greece-based businessman said that he lived with his wife since the commencement of the marriage up till July 2009 “when she moved out of their matrimonial home to hibernate with one Bernard Akinleye (alias Malayo).