Aminu Atiku-Abubakar and wife must settle on kids monthly allowance court rules

A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Friday ordered Aminu Atiku and his ex-wife, Unmi Bolori, to agree on the monthly upkeep allowance he would be paying for the two children of the severed union.

Justice Kazeem Alogba described the dispute by the estranged couple’s over the N250,000 per month as ordered by a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, to be paid by Atiku as a waste of time. Aminu, son of a former Vice-President, Abubakar Atiku, had approached the court to suspend the N250,000 child allowance, describing it as “onerous”, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

He argued that he was already satisfying all his children’s needs, a view which was disputed by Bolori. In his ruling, Justice Kazeem Alogba upheld Aminu’s application, noting that Atiku had presented evidence to show that he had been “substantially meeting” the educational, medical, feeding and other needs of the ex-couple’s daughter, Ameera, 11, and the son, Aamir, 7.

Alogba held: “I am satisfied that the applicant has very substantially complied with the lower court’s order. I grant the stay of execution pending the determination of the appeal.” The judge, further, urged counsel in the case, Messers M.O Enitan for Atiku and N. E. Okoh for Bolori, to advise their clients to put heads together to arrive at a reasonable sum in the children’s “interest instead of wasting time on litigating the appeal”. He adjourned hearing of the substantive suit until June 14.

The ruling followed an appeal filed by Atiku’s son seeking to upturn, among others, the Jan. 10 decision of Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye of the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court which granted Bolori full custody of both children. Bolori, daughter of a Maiduguri businessman, Alhaji Bukar Bolori, had married Aminu in Ghana in 2007, and by 2011, the couple had separated.

On Oct.18, 2017, Chief Magistrate Ayeye temporarily remanded Aminu in a transit cell within the court’s premises after citing him for alleged contempt. Atiku had allegedly kept Aamir from his mother, contrary to an Oct. 11, 2017 order of the court. There was further a drama at the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court on Jan.10 following Chief Magistrate Ayeye’s judgment. The boy’s mother claimed that Aminu snatched Aamir and drove off with him.

NAN also reports that the issue was, however, resolved the following day when Amir was handed over to Bolori at the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. (NAN)