The rate at which some married couples are sending themselves out of this world this time around is becoming too alarming, disturbing and disheartening. There was the story of Cynthia, the banker, whose husband was sent to the gallows by the court of law for the killing of the young lady. A female lawyer by name Yewande Oyediran in Ibadan , Oyo State narrowly escaped death for the killing of her husband .She was arraigned before a court of law for Murder but was eventually convicted for Manslaughter. She was to spend seven years in prison. Very recently, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice organized a press conference where he told the world that his Ministry had concluded the arrangement to arraign before the court of law, one Mrs. Udeme Otiki Odibi for the murder of her lawyer husband , Mr. Symphosa Otiki Odibi . It was alleged that Mrs Odibi stabbed her husband to death and mutilated his body. According to the Attorney General the woman must face the law. As if another woman teacher in Ikorodu, Lagos State was waiting for the Attorney General to conclude his press conference, she took a knife to scare away her husband whom she said had turned her to a boxing bag for constant beating. In the process the devil intervened and the woman sent her husband packing from the world. According to the said arrested woman, she said her relatives had long advised her to leave the husband but she refused to do so because of the two children she had for the man. In Bayelsa State , a High Court has sentenced another woman by name Victoria Gagariga to death by hanging for the killing of her husband. Not long ago I read an on line news where it was alleged that some men in America are killing their imported wives from Africa. Also a Danish citizen was alleged to have killed his wife and a child as a result of domestic violence. While all the incidents related above are very sad, we must all try to do whatever within our power to find ways and lasting solutions to this kind of unfortunate incidents. There must be an end to marriages that lead to either the death of the husband or the wife through domestic violence. One continues to wonder why many well celebrated marriages end up either in the violent death of either of the couple. When this happens, either the wife or the husband is arraigned before the court that eventually applies the law by sending the accused to gallows if found guilty. Is the law no longer deterrent enough to deter the estranged husband and wife from killing each other in domestic violence? If the marriage is no longer working, must the husband and wife resort to cat and mouse relationship or domestic violence that may eventually lead to death ? In my salute to Pa. Gomez at 90 I wrote thus: “Recently Pa. Gomez was seriously disturbed by the cracks in many homes where either wife killed the husband or the husband killed the wife and came up with a book titled: GUIDE TO HAPPY MARRIAGE, to save many homes from being collapsed. Apart from this, he has also set up a MARRIAGE CONSULTANCY UNIT in his law firm where people are encouraged to seek for counselling.” While this step taken by one of the oldest lawyers in Nigeria is very commendable, we must also be involved in the act of saving the institution of marriage. The rate at which divorce cases go to our courts these days are becoming too alarming. One of the lessons that need to be learned from this development by those who are yet to marry is to be very prayerful before going into the marriage. The marriage goes beyond the assertions that: “The lady is extremely beautiful and nothing can stop me from marrying her”; “The man is wonderfully caring and handsome that only death can stop me from marrying him”. Those that are going into marriage, by the popular parlance must shine their eyes very well. They must look before they leap as the refusal to do the needful may be disastrous. Anyone that unnecessarily rushes into marriage without serious caution will definitely rush out of that marriage. Those you see today celebrating decades of marriage anniversary are people that have gone very long ways in their relationships. They have learnt to, love, tolerate and endure one another. That is to say whenever there is dispute, the husband and wife know how to manage it between each other without the third party intervention. For the benefit of young men and women who are contemplating going into marriage and those already in it, I believe they will find one thing or the other to learn from what the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo said about his marriage in his autobiography published in 1960: “It is I think pertinent that I should, at this juncture, say a word or two about my wife and what she has meant to me. Throughout all the changing fortunes of my life since I married her on 26th December, 1937, my wife Hannah Idowu DideOlu Awolowo (nee Adelana) has been a jewel of inestimable value. She is an ideal wife; and I am sure she too regards me as an ideal husband .The outpouring of her love and devotion to me and to our family is exceedingly and beyond words. She is a resourceful business woman; and in this regard she is a worthy upholder of the traditions of her mother (Madam Elizabeth Oyesile) and her grandmother (Chief Adebowale Oyegunle) both of whom are successful women traders. The grandmother at the age of over 100 is still carrying on her business, though now on a token scale…With my wife on my side, it has been possible for us to weather all financial storms. Because of her charm, humility, generosity and ever-ready sympathy and helpfulness to others in distress, she is beloved and respected by all other friends and acquaintances. She has courage of rare kind- I have too…I owe my success in life to three factors: the Grace of God, a Spartan of self-discipline, and a good wife. Our home is to all of us (us and our children) a true haven: a place of happiness, and imperturbable seclusion from the buffetings of life…It is a matter for joy and profound gratitude to Almighty God that our mutual love and devotion has been richly blessed…” As if the wife of late Chief Awolowo, Chief (Mrs.) H.I.D. Awolowo (now deceased) inherited longevity from her grandmother, she also died almost at the age of 100 close to about three decades after the demise of her husband. How many husbands can say this type of things about their wives and vice versa today? FAREWELL TO HON. JUSTICE MUSTAPHA AKANBI While writing this piece the news suddenly came to me that Hon. Justice Muhammad Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, the 3rd President of the Court of Appeal and the pioneer Chairman of ICPC is dead. In my salute at 80 to Hon. Justice SMA Belgore, the 10th Chief Justice of Nigeria published in the Daily Trust Newspaper sometime last year, I had written thus: “If one says Kwara State is the pride of Legal Profession in Nigeria, factually one will not be exaggerating because it was the state that produced the first Nigerian lawyer from the whole of the Northern Nigeria in person of Alhaji Abdulganiy Folorusho Abdulrasaq, SAN. The State has also produced two Presidents of the Court of Appeal in persons of Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi and Hon. Justice Ayo lsa Salami both now retired. It produced Hon. Justice Mahmud Babatunde Belgore now of blessed memory who was the former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. Hon. Justice Timothy Oyeyipo, a former Chief Judge of Kwara State was the longest serving Chief Judge in the Federation having served in that capacity for over two decades. The 10th Chief Justice of Nigeria in person of Hon. Justice Salihu Moddibo Alfa Belgore was from Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. It is also worth knowing that the incumbent Emir of Ilorin in person His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari was serving as a Justice of the Court of Appeal when he resigned to mount the royal throne.” Although the death of Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi is a great loss to the Legal Profession in Nigeria at large but Kwara State particularly Ilorin will feel the demise of this late jurist most. Justice Akanbi during his time on the bench was one of the most incorruptible and upright jurists ever produced in Nigeria. He was the first Justice of the Court of Appeal to become the President of that court as his two predecessors (Justices Ibekwe and Nasir ) in that office were brought one after the other from the Supreme Court to head the Court of Appeal when it was established . Justice Akanbi was said to have once said it publicly that he never in his life took bribe to pervert the cause of justice and challenged anyone with contrary view to come out to challenge him. It was his uprightness that earned him the position as the pioneer Chairman of the ICPC under the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo. With the departure from the world of this great jurist in the Holy Month of Ramadan, we pray Almighty Allah to accept him, bless his soul and put him among His righteous servants in the Al-Jannah-Firdaos. We equally pray Allah to give the Legal Profession in Nigeria and his immediate family the fortitude to bear the great loss. Adieu Hon. Justice Mustapha Akanbi! REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON VALID MARRIAGE “In every system of jurisprudence known to us, one of the essential requirements for valid marriage is that it must be the union of a man and a woman thereby creating the status of husband and wife. Indeed, the law governing any decent society should abhor and express its indignation of a woman to woman marriage; and where there is proof that a custom permits such an association the custom must be regarded as repugnant by virtue of the provision of Section 14 (3) of the Evidence Act and ought not to be upheld by the court.” Per MADARIKAN, JSC in Meribe Vs. Egwu (1976) NSCC Vol. 10 Pg. 186 Lines 10-16 THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On whether relief not claim can be granted “It is settled law that where a relief is not claimed in the statement of claim no court can grant it.” See Isamotu Otanioku Vs. Lawal Mustafa Alli (1977) 11 – 12 SC 9 at 13; Ilodibia Vs. Nigerian Cement Co. Ltd (1997) 7 NWLR (Pt. 512) 174, (1997) KLR at 1133; LANG Vs. MOHAMMED (2001) 3 NWLR (Pt. 700) Pg. 403 Paras A – C For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>
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