Aspiring PDP Lawmaker in Edo risks jail term

An Edo PDP House of Assembly Aspirant, Izirin Ohioze Elakhe is in imminent danger of a Jail term.

An aspirant who sought to represent Owan West Constituency in the just concluded PDP Primaries for the Edo State House of Assembly, Izirin Ohioze Elakhe, is in imminent risk of going to jail as a consequence of being in contempt of a judgment of court.

Information available to us indicates that a Lagos State High Court, presided over by Justice A. M. Nicol Clay, had, in a petition instituted by Ms Ndidi Iyamu for the dissolution of the marriage between her and the Edo politician, with suit number ID/492WD/2013, dissolved the marriage on the ground that it had broken down irretrievably based on the petitioner’s testimony of domestic violence and drug abuse.

Sole custody of the only child was awarded to Ms Iyamu with the politician granted reasonable access to the child. The dissolution order became absolute on the 3rd of March, 2019.

It is on record that Mr Elakhe participated in the trial and was duly represented by counsel.
Reliable sources informed us that trouble started in October, 2021, when Ms Iyamu, in a bid to give a balanced childhood to the child who has been in her custody since birth, allowed the boy, who is 11 years of age, to spend the midterm break with his father in Abuja.

Events took a turn for the worse when Mr Elakhe refused to relinquish Master Alec to his mother when the one week mid term break was over.

The man rebuffed every entreaty, including from official quarters like FIDA and the Nigerian Police, relying on the strength of his relationship with a former Inspector-General of Police who he calls Uncle to frustrate every effort to rein him in and restore custody to the woman.

He reportedly registered the boy in a school in the Kuje part of Abuja, and has since then barred the mother from seeing or speaking with her son.

When contacted, Ms Iyamu bemoaned the level of lawlessness her ex husband had exhibited in the matter, insisting that he was bent on frustrating her efforts to reclaim her son while his Elder brother, a claimed pastor, entreated her to accept the abduction of her child in good faith .

According to her, Mr Elakhe had remarried even before the judgment dissolving their own marriage in 2018, and wondered why a stranger would be in custody of her only child, while depriving her of the mother-son bond which she has vehemently refused to monetise.

She was emphatic that she would not give up her son and it was pure wickedness for Mr. Elakhe, who now relies on his political affiliations as back up, to have taken her son as payback for refusing to remain in an abusive marriage in 2013.

She is determined to take steps to commence contempt proceedings against her ex husband for willfully frustrating the clear orders of the 2018 Judgment by forcefully keeping Alec in his custody, contrary to the judgment.

Speaking on the matter, Aja N. Aja, a lawyer, stated that the judgment of the court granting custody to the petitioner was a valid and subsisting judgment of a competent court of law.

He was of the view that Mr Elakhe risked serving time in jail if his ex wife escalated the matter by serving on him relevant court processes and advised the man to release the child to the mother as his actions amounts to a flagrant disregard of law and an abrogation of the child’s rights.

Efforts to speak with Mr Elakhe were not successful as the phone line provided was not connecting.