Former beauty queen Precious Chikwendu has accused her estranged husband and former minister of aviation Femi Fani-Kayode of assaulting her severally while she was pregnant.
She made the allegation and more in an affidavit she deposed to in support of an originating motion brought pursuant to Section 69 of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003.
Chikwendu said she met Mr Fani-Kayode in 2014 at the peak of her career and they soon fell in love and began living together and had four children, a son age five and a set of triplets age three.
She said, “From the early days of our relationship, the respondent (Fani-Kayode), has always maintained a lifestyle of utter disregard to my feelings. This was evident in the way and manner the respondent assaulted me while pregnant with our first son.
“The respondent (Fani-Kayode) kicked me severally on my stomach over a petty argument that ensued. It was my friend, Vanessa, who was around at the material time that intervened at the nick of time to save me.
“I had to leave the respondent’s (Fani-Kayode’s) house a few days after this incident. The respondent (Fani-Kayode) repeated the same act when I was pregnant with triplets, this time it was my mother and sister, Faith, that intervened.”
She alleged that the former minister accused her of infidelity and on several occasions locked her out of their Abuja home.
She asked the court to compel Fani-Kayode to give her a monthly payment of N3.5m for the upkeep of their four sons, claiming he currently spends N1.8m on food, toiletries and others on the four children every month while N575,000 is spent monthly on clothing.
She said Fani-Kayode has continued to deny her access to the children in order to compel her to return to the marriage.
WITHIN NIGERIA had earlier reported that the ex-beauty queen on Friday wrote a strong-worded message to Fani-Kayode on Instagram, assuring she would fight for the custody of her children.
In a response filed by Oluwafemi Popoola on behalf of Fani-Kayode, the ex-minister said he had not been properly served with the court processes and hence could not respond appropriately.
The affidavit Popoola deposed to read in part, “Except there is service or proper service of the originating processes filed in this case on the respondent/applicant, this honourable court will lack jurisdiction to conduct further proceedings.”