A man has dragged his wife to court after realizing that she hid her HIV status from him after marriage.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Maitama on Monday
annulled a four-year marriage between Mr Ugochukwu and Uchenna Eke due
to the wife’s terminal disease which she concealed.
The judge, Justice Jude Okeke, in his judgment, held that the
petitioner’s evidence had been accepted since the woman did not file any
protest contradicting the facts.
“The court holds the view that by undeniable evidence that the respondent is suffering from HIV prior and during the marriage.
“In the circumstance, the court holds the view that the petitioner
has fulfilled the provisions of section 5 (1) (a) of the Matrimonial
Causes Act 2004 to grant the prayers sought.
“In the light of this, a decree of nullity of the marriage between
the petitioner and the respondent contracted on Feb. 12, 2013, at
marriage registry of Kaduna South District is hereby nullified,’’ Okeke
said.
He recalled that Eke on June 15, 2016, filed a petition seeking the nullification of his marriage with his wife, Uchenna.
The judge said that the petitioner pleaded for voiding of the
marriage because his wife was suffering from a terminal disease, and in a
communicable form before the consummation of the marriage.
He held that the woman concealed the information about her health
condition from her husband and they got married after which she
relocated from Kaduna to Abuja on Nov. 29, 2013, to join the man.
Okeke held that there was no pre-marital dating and no medical laboratory test to ascertain their HIV status.
He said that Eke on Dec. 2, 2015, discovered that his wife was HIV
positive after observing that she was sick and frequenting Kaduna to
visit a doctor.
According to the judge, the petitioner stopped having sexual
intercourse with the respondent and on Feb. 15, 2016, she packed out of
the house.
He, therefore, dissolved the marriage on grounds that the woman did
not contradict the prayer of her husband and the facts presented by him
to end the union.
-NAN
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