Magistrate gives custody of teenage girl to father

Magistratre O. I. Adelaja of a family court sitting in Apapa, has directed that a seven year old girl (name withheld), be in the custody of her father, Inyiri Kalu Nwojo.
Magistrate Adelaja issued the order on October 30, 2014 in the absence of the mother (Sharon Ula Opie), whom the court had earlier ordered to be detained at a police station, for flouting the court's order that the child be produced in court.
Before the order was given, both Iyiri and Sharon, whose marriage had broken down two years after they came together as couple, have been at loggerhead over who should take custody of the only product of their union.‬
Specifically, Sharon informed the family court that she refused to present the girl as directed by the magistrate on the reason that she had shown evidence that the girl was in a school at Alagbole, Ogun state and that she is capable of taking care of the six year old girl.‬
According to an affidavit of urgency initiated by Sharon's lawyer, Taiwo Taiwo maintained that her absence in court was not intentional since she was not aware that the court had relocated from Apapa Wharf to its current location on Mobil road, Boundary, Apapa.
She further explained that her absence in court was consequent upon ill health and that she was shock to hear from her counsel that the child that was released to her on August 6, be brought to court on September 4, 2014.
This according to Sharon is against the earlier order of the court made on June 5, 2014 and that she became aware of the court order on August 27,2014.
But the application was not heard before the court released the child to the father. Sharon's lawyer has however vowed to challenge the order made by Magistrate Adelaja at the High Court of Lagos State.
In his claim in an affidavit deposed to by one Miss Ugochinyere Nwaozor before the court, Inyiri averred that he married the mother of the girl in 2007 but they divorced in 2009.‬
He equally told the court that since their separation, the child have been living with her mother-in-law in Abirabi, Arochukwu LGA, Abia of Abia State and that he has been taken care of the girl.
In the meantime, Sharon has filed a divorce petition against her husband Stanley Inyiri Kalu Nwonjo at a Lagos High Court sitting at Ikeja for the dissolution of their marriage on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.