By Ikechukwu Nnochiri – Abuja
An Abuja Upper Area Court sitting at Kubwa, on Tuesday, ordered Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to immediately hand over his three sons to his estranged wife, Maryam Sherif.
Abubakar, who is the son of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, was embroiled in a legal tussle with his divorced wife, Sherif, over who should take custody of the three children they had together.
Sherif had dragged her former husband to court and sought an order to take custody of her three sons.
Abubakar, however, challenged the competence of the suit marked CV/16/2020, even as he urged the court to dismiss it and allow him to retain custody of their children.
He subsequently prayed the court to suspend proceedings in the matter to await the outcome of an interlocutory appeal he lodged against a ruling that required the production of the children at every sitting.
His plea for hearing to be stopped in the case was rejected by the court on the premise that there was no order from the appellate court to that effect.
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The Upper Area Court later okayed the matter for judgement after the two parties adopted their final written addresses on October 8.
Delivering the judgement on Tuesday, the Judge, Bashir Danmaisule, upheld the case of the claimant, Sherif.
The Judge held that Abubakar failed to establish why his divorced wife should be denied custody of her children under the Islamic law.
The court further expunged testimonies of five witnesses that Abubakar brought to testify on his behalf in the matter.
Though the judge ordered the Defendant to immediately handover the three children to his former wife, he held that Abubakar was at liberty to within the next 30 days, appeal against the judgement.
