UYO
An Akwa Ibom State High Court, sitting in Uyo, has ordered the arrest of a father of one, Mr. Itoro Monday Uko an indigene of Monday Akpan Uko’s family in Itak Ikot Udo, Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, for contempt of Court.
Itoro Uko is said have abandoned his wife and his only child, a two year-old girl, in the village to live with his side chick in Ikot Ekpene town.
The presiding Judge, Justice Ntong Ntong, issued the order after hearing counsel to the applicant and mother of the child, Barrister Ekom Friday Inwang, following the absence of the contemnor and his Counsel.
The applicant, a private school teacher from Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, told the court that apart from neglecting his responsibilities as a father in providing the needs of his child, the respondent also refused to refund the N200,000 loan she collected for her husband to fix his car since March 2022.
She said they got married on January 18, 2020 after which she gave birth to her first child, adding that when she got pregnant for a second child her husband started to beat her which resulted in her first miscarriage.
The mother of one also told the court that she got pregnant again for the third time but her husband continued to physically assault her, causing her to bleed in May 2022, explaining that when was rushed to a hospital due to bleeding she was on admission for three days and her husband did not show up, saying it was her siblings who paid her medical bills.
She said, when she was discharged from the hospital, she had to travel to her village in Mkpat Enin where her mother took care of her till she recovered fully, noting that throughout her stay with her mother, her husband did not call or visit.
Upon her full recovery on July 4, 2022, the applicant said she went to her husband’s family home in Itak Ikot Udo, where they were living to find out why her husband did not visit but to her surprise, the keys to their apartment had been changed and she could not enter the house to pick her clothes and that of her child.
Mrs Itoro Uko said after she gave birth to her daughter, she realized that her husband was keeping multiple sex partners and efforts to get him change proved abortive.
She told the court that she became pregnant again for the third time, after the two miscarriages, and the act of battery by her husband still persisted which prompted her in-laws to advise her to stay with her parents in Mkpat Enin to avoid being killed by her husband.
Counsel to the applicant urged the court to order the arrest and detention of the respondent for being in contempt of the order of the Court made on April 6, 2023.
Justice Ntong granted the order and “commanded Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police and the Divisional Police Officer, Ikot Ekpene Division, their officers and men in the name of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State and the Inspector General of Police to cause the arrest and detention of Mr. Itoro Monday Uko and produce him in Court” and adjourned the case to Thursday, April 25, 2024 for hearing.
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