Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s son, Aminu ran away with his 7-years-old son shortly after a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court granted his estranged wife, Unmi Fatima Bolori custody of the children.
Aminu Atiku
According to Nwabuzor-Ethel Okoh, Bolori’s counsel: “The boy is not with us. He snatched the boy from the mother and spirited him away, even after the final ruling on custody earlier made by the court. We are now trying to get across to him and the boy. He snatched the boy from his mother and drove off. We never suspected anything like this was going to happen, otherwise I would have told the boy’s mom to drive away with her kids.”
Meanwhile, Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye had on Wednesday granted the custody of the two children to their mother, Bolori after Aminu failed to file a response to her application for child custody. The Chief Magistrate made the order following the absence of Aminu and his legal team.
However, Bolori, in her application for child custody had proposed an arrangement for the welfare of the children, which was argued by her counsel (Nwabuzor-Ethel Okoh) and Gloria Albert-Ekpe from Festus Keyamo Chambers. She asked the court to order Aminu to pay her N300,000 monthly as feeding and maintenance allowance for the kids’ upkeep and N1 million yearly as their clothing allowance.
The wife also sought an order restraining her estranged husband from taking the kids outside the borders of Nigeria for any purpose whatsoever without her consent. At the resumed hearing of the matter on Wednesday, neither Aminu nor his counsel was present.
The court’s ruling Magistrate Ayeye in her verdict said: “The respondent failed to file a response. In view of the deliberate absence of the respondent and his legal team, I am constrained to make these following orders in default of respondent’s presence and in the best interest of the children to wit: “Unmi Fatima Bolori is hereby granted full custody of the children aged seven and nine.”
Bolori was permitted to reside with the children at her residence in Abuja and was ordered to put the children in schools suited for their educational needs in Abuja. Nevertheless, Aminu was permitted to visit the children in Abuja and also request to spend holidays with them. He was ordered to pay monthly upkeep for the children in the amount of N250,000 monthly, beginning from January 2018 and was ordered to effect medical insurance on each of the children.
It is interesting to know that last year, October 18, 2017 the court had remanded Aminu in transit cell for disobeying a court order to produce his son in court. He was alleged to have disobeyed an order by Magistrate Ayeye on October 11, 2017 over the custody of the son.