Inec Director Sues Wife For DIVORCE Over BIGAMY

He is a top director at the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters here in Abuja. Edoghotu BaraMoni and his estranged wife are at the centre of a messy divorce suit that has been on in an Abujja court for some time now. In the suit filed by the Director of Works at the INEC headquaters, he is asking the FCT High Court to nullify his 6-year old marriage to his estranged wife Kurakiri who works at the Bayelsa State Liason Office, Abuja.Obviously, it is a case of love gone sour. According to the petitioner, he went through a ceremony of marriage with the respondent who was purportedly a divorcee on the 24th July 2003 at the Rivers State Marriage Registry, Port Harcourt. Edoghotu, who was previously married, said the marriage was dissolved by the death of his spouse on the 10th march, 2002.
According to him, he and Kurakiri lived together at block 13, Flat A, Federal Staff Housing Estate, Gwarimpa, Abuja from 24th July 2003 till 9thOctober 2009 when he found out after 6 years of marriage to her that she was still legally married to her former husband- Mr Gogo Goodhead, a fact he claimed she hid from him.Edoghotu disclosed to the court that following the discovery, his marriage to Kurakiri was traditionally dissolved on 9th October 2009 according to his custom. Following the traditional dissolution, he said both of them have ceased to cohabit even as the marriage produced no child. His plea before the court is to be granted a decree of nullity of marriage on the ground that the respondent was at the time of the marriage to the petitioner lawfully married to some other person, that is, Mr Gogo Goodhead.
According to him, he did not know of this fact since the respondent kept it as a secret and presented herself as a divorcee as at the time he met and married her. But Kurakiri in her answer to the petition filed on her behalf by Barrister Esther Uzoma of Heptagon & Associates, asked for dissolution of the marriage on the grounds that the marriage has broken down irretrievably due to the violent intolerable behaviour of her estranged husband. She asked the court to give an order compelling the petitioner to return her property. In addition, Karakiri is asking the court to award the cost of one million naira as general damages for violence and loss of consortium.
She denied the Director’s allegation of being married to Mr Gogo Goodhead or anybody else and asked the Director to provide proofs to substantiate his claims, insisting that at the time of her marriage to the petitioner, she was not married to anyone else. Kurakiri said the petitioner is particularly angry towards her because she is childless and that he drove her out of their matrimonial home because he has concluded arrangement to marry a younger person. She said she can no longer condone the violent attitude of the petitioner towards her which was a constant threat to her life adding that she was driven out by the petitioner who refused to allow her pick any of her properties. Hearing in the case will come up before Justice Gumi, the FCT Chief Judge on 30th of January 2013.