Wife Seeking Divorce Dies During Childbirth In Ibadan

An Ibadan Customary Court sitting at Mapo Hill, yesterday, struck out a divorce case brought by a woman, following her death during labour.

The petitioner, Marian Folalu, a housewife, had asked the court to dissolve her 20-year-old marriage to her husband, Kayode, over the controversy surrounding her fifth pregnancy that she probably had it for another man.

At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday, Kayode informed the court that his wife died in May, during labour.

Consequently, Chief Ademola Odunade, the court’s President, who sympathised with the respondent, struck out the case and advised Kayode to approach the appeal division of the customary court for a redress, if he so desired. Marian had told the court that the controversial pregnancy, being the subject of litigation before the court, belonged to her concubine, one Ololade.

Marian, who denied that her husband was responsible for the pregnancy, told the court that her concubine, who had been sleeping with her since January, was the rightful owner of the expected child. Ololade, in his testimony, corroborated the petitioner’s claim that he was responsible for the pregnancy.

However, the respondent dismissed the claim and insisted that the pregnancy was his. The court had adjourned the case until yesterday, when Marian was expected to have given birth so that DNA test could be conducted to determine the paternity of the child.