The Managing Director of Abuja Market Management Limited (AMML), Abubakar Faruk, has filed a suit bordering on child custody against former governor of Gombe, Senator Danjuma Goje, and his daughter, Fatima.

In the suit before a Grade 1 area court in Abuja, Faruk is seeking a court order compelling his ex-father-in-law, Goje, and his former wife, Fatima, to return his daughter from London to Nigeria to enable her continue with her studies in Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja.

He said he got married to Fatima Goje under Islamic Law on December 20, 1997 and the marriage was blessed with three children, Fatima, 18; Othman, 15 and Mohammad, 10 before they got divorced on August 31, 2014.

He said his ex-wife thereafter conspired with her father to take his daughter to London, which has put a clog on the daughter’s chance of completing her education in Nigeria as she was already a 300-level Civil Engineering student before she was taken abroad.

Faruk, a son of the first military governor of North-Western State, Alhaji Usman Faruk, is also praying the court for an order restraining the defendants from taking any of his three children outside Abuja without his consent or meddling in their affairs.

However, at the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to the defendants, Kennedy Anoba, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit on the ground that since it also relates to the international passport of the plaintiff’s daughter, the court lacks the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Faruk, had in a letter dated November 6, 2017, also urged the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to stop the defendants from taking his daughter out of the country.

His lawyer, Mohammed Shuaib, however contended that the Gojes misconceived the matter before the court, noting that it is not basically about the withdrawal of an international passport but the protection of the plaintiff’s right to guardianship.

He added that the claim that the daughter is no more a child, having clocked the adult age of 18 is a non-issue under Islamic Law which states that until a daughter gets married, the father still maintains guardianship over her.

The judge adjourned the matter to January 25, 2017. (Daily Trust)

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