Precious Chikwendu, a former beauty queen and ex-wife of former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has accused him of beating her up on several occasions even while she was pregnant
Chikwendu made the allegations in an affidavit she deposed to in support of an originating motion brought pursuant to Section 69 of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003 at the FCT High Court, Abuja.
In the court papers, the mother of four boys said she met Fani-Kayode in 2014 at the peak of her career and fell in love with him.
“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 I was pregnant with our first son.
The respondent (Fani-Kayode) kicked me several times 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 stated
The former beauty queen alleged that on one occasion, the former Minister connived with a former Divisional Police Officer of the Asokoro Police Station to drug her.
She, however, said things soon turned sour between them as Fani-Kayode began exhibiting signs of paranoia. She alleged that the former minister accused her of infidelity and on several occasions locked her out of their home located on Aso Drive, Asokoro, Abuja.
“Sometime in 2018, in one of my attempts to leave the house with the children, the respondent (Fani-Kayode) in the company of the DPO of Asokoro Police Division, and her team of policemen handcuffed me and stripped me naked while someone from the crowd whom I initially mistook for a policeman forcefully injected me with a sedation.
That I was then abducted and incarcerated at a hospital for a period of two weeks. I was separated from my six-month-old triplets and a-year-old son at the time.” she said
Chikwendu, who alleged that the ex-minister had denied her access to her children for several months, asked the court to compel Fani-Kayode to give her a monthly payment of N3.5 million for the upkeep of their four sons.
She said the Former Minister currently spends N1.8 million on food, toiletries and others on the four children every month while N575,000 is spent monthly on clothing. She said Fani-Kayode had continued to deny her access to the children in order to compel her to return to the marriage.
Chikwendu iseeks an order of the court “granting her custody of the four children to the applicant but with reasonable right of access to the respondent”.
FFK in a response filed by his counsel, Oluwafemi Popoola, said he had not been properly served with the court processes and hence, he could not respond appropriately.
The response in part reads
“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.”