Children custody: Court orders Atiku son’s arrest
The Upper Area Court, Kubwa, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the arrest of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, son of Nigeria’s former Vice-President, for disobeying an October 27, 2020 judgement, directing him to hand his three sons to their mother, Maryam Sherif, for custody.
Sherif had commenced the children custody suit after the divorce between her and her former husband, Abubakar.
The judge, Bashir Danmaisule, delivered judgement in favour of Sherif on October 27, 2020.
But her lawyer, Nasir Saidu returned to the court complaining that Abubakar had failed to comply with the judgement.
Saidu had urged the court to issue a judgement-debtor summon for the defendant to appear in court to explain why he did not obey the court’s order and why he should not be jailed for disobeying the court’s judgement.
Both Abubakar and his lawyer, Abdullahi Hassan, were absent in court on Thursday, although the court bailiff said the defendant was served with the summons through the Nigeria Customs Service, where he works, on November 3, 2020.
Relying on the claim of the bailiff, Saidu urged the court to issue an arrest warrant against the defendant.
He urged the court to order that Abubakar be arrested and kept in a jail pending when he obeys the court judgement.