‘My wife wants our son to be a farmer, I want education’

The Abeokuta Customary Grade II Court, Ake, has granted custody of a 10-year-old boy, Ismail Ayinde, to his father’s sisters to enable him acquire education. Ismail’s father, Taofeek Ayinde, had approached the court requesting a dissolution of his 11-year-old marriage to Ismail’s mother, Ayoka, and custody of the boy. At the resumed hearing of the […]

The Abeokuta Customary Grade II Court, Ake, has granted custody of a 10-year-old boy, Ismail Ayinde, to his father’s sisters to enable him acquire education.

Ismail’s father, Taofeek Ayinde, had approached the court requesting a dissolution of his 11-year-old marriage to Ismail’s mother, Ayoka, and custody of the boy.

At the resumed hearing of the case at the weekend, Ayinde told the court that his wife had relocated his son to the village to engage him in farming. 

“That is dangerous for him. I am an illiterate, but I want my son to go to school and be educated,” he pleaded.

He narrated how Ayoka had one day accosted the boy on his way to the school he was attending in Abeokuta and took him to the village to do farming, adding, “Please I beg this court to give me my son for proper care.”

Testifying, sisters to Ayinde – Noyimot, a trader and Mrs Kudirat Oguntola, a staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) – said Ayoka had frustrated all efforts to make Ismail progress in his education. Mrs Oguntola lamented, “At a stage, I told Ayoka to be coming to me for Ismail’s needs, but she sees everyone as her enemy and keeps the boy away from them. All we are after is his education. He is the only son of his father and that is why we are concerned.”

When called upon by the court president, Chief Olalekan Akande, Ismail, who could not even pronounce his school name for some seconds, said he was in Primary 2, a claim that shocked the court considering his age.

The boy expressed his preference to stay with his mother, saying, “I am now going to school, my uniform has been sewn.”

In her defence, Ayoka alleged Ayinde was not willing to care for the boy because he had other wives. 

“I was taking care of all his responsibilities. It was when I spent all I had that I went to the village to do some farming to raise money to take care of him. Now, he is back in school. In fact, his new uniform is with me here in court,” she said.

Ismail’s step-brother, Lateef Sofoluwe, argued before the court that the boy’s education had declined and supported Ayinde’s request to take custody of his son.

After a thorough deliberation, the court, considering that Ismail’s father is a commercial bus driver, said he might not be capable of giving his son the necessary attention and ruled that the boy should be in custody of Ayinde’s sisters.

According to Akande, “This is worrisome. You (both parents) have allowed your trouble to give the boy a major setback. A boy that ought to be in, at least, Primary 6 is still in Primary 2. Government cannot accept that. We discovered that Ayoka cannot take care of the boy, while the father will be returning home late in the night. We are only giving you the boy because you are his father. But it is your sisters, who from evidences are capable of taking care of him, that we are handing over to.

“They are required to be giving the registry in every two months the situation report on the subject. The court equally grants the request for dissolution of the 11-year- old relationship and both parties should stay away from each other. The boy’s mother is free to see the subject at a place suitable and agreed by both of you without any crisis.”