A woman, Mrs. Adedoyin Ogunmefun, was yesterday arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court for allegedly marrying two men at the same time, and having children for both.
Arraigned alongside her second husband before Magistrate B. O. Osunsanmi, over alleged forgery of National Population Commission certificate of birth AO8/NO/0268923 and AO8/NO/0268922, Mrs Ogunmefun was said to have been married to one Mr. Abraham Okoro, with whom she had two children before leaving to have another child for the second husband while still married to the first.
The Police prosecutor, Mr. Benson Emurih, told the court that the defendants presented the forged certificates to Parthcare Laboratory in Oduduwa Crescent, GRA, Ikeja.
He said the offence was punishable under sections 409,363 (3) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.
According to the complainant, Abraham Okoro, he had lived with his estranged wife between 2000 and 2007, adding that the union produced two children namely Kymberly Abieyuwa Adenike Okoro and Bryant Amadin Olamipo Okoro, who were born in Nigeria and US respectively.
He further accused the wife of deserting their marriage for Ogunmefun, who she had a daughter for in 2009.
Okoro also said the accused was told that for her to be accepted back into her matrimonial home, she would perform some traditional rites of cleansing.
“She agreed to demonstrate her love and loyalty and moved back to my house on February 14, 2012 and we started living together again until May 17,2012, when she went to an Ikeja High Court to file for nullification of her marriage with Mr Ogunmefun before Justice Oyewole,” he said.
Okoro, however, said his wife moved out of his house again on November 3, 2012, noting that she suddenly wrote him a letter through her lawyer, Taiwo and Taiwo, in December 2012 claiming that the two children she had for him were not his.
“On March 26, 2013, I got a court summon, the petitioners were Adedoyin Ogunmefun and Babatunde Ogunmefun, claiming that my children were Babatunde’s children, with a fake DNA result purported to embarrass me and my children, the matter which has long been strucked out by a magistrate court sitting in Surulere,” Okoro added.