Isma'il Ibrahim, a businessman, hauled his mother-in-law, Zainab Muhammad, before a Shari'a Court in Rigasa, Kaduna, on Tuesday for allegedly refusing to let his wife return to their marital home.
The court was informed by the complainant, a resident of Police Station Road in Rigasa, that the defendant had prevented his wife from coming home because of his financial predicament.
“I love my wife and I want her home, I pray court to assist me get my wife back,’’ he said.
In her defence, the defendant said she stopped her daughter from going to her matrimonial home due to lack of care by the complainant.
She said her daughter had a caesarean section and lost her baby.
She added that the complainant failed to pay the hospital bill and abandoned the wife at her parent’s house for three months without care.
“He came after three months, requesting for his wife to return to him and I told him she has to stay with me for six months to enable her fully recover.
“My daughter fell sick after the operation and I was the one that paid for all her medication and feeding throughout the period,’’ she said.
She told the court that she was ready to hand over her daughter to the husband if he paid all she had spent on medication and feeding for nine months.
The judge, Malam Abubakar Salisu-Tureta, adjourned the case until Sept. 4, for the defendant to present the total sum of the money she spent on her daughter.