Mrs Agnes Ikpea has prayed the Appeal Court, Benin, Edo State, to set aside a ruling which her estranged husband, Chief Leemon Ikpea, relied upon to evict her from their matrimonial home in Lagos.
Chief Ikpea had filed a petition at the Edo State High Court in Benin seeking the dissolution of his 39-year marriage which produced six children. He also filed an ex-parte application asking the court to order his wife to vacate the matrimonial home on Banana Island in Lagos.
On February 17, 2021, Justice J. I. Acha granted the application. However, the judge directed the petitioner to provide suitable accommodation for Agnes around Victoria Island.
But the estranged wife alleged that the husband threw her out of the house without providing her with any alternative suitable accommodation as ordered by the court.
Justice Acha had refused Mrs Ikpea’s application to transfer the case to Lagos since both parties reside in the state. Following the ruling, Mrs Ikpea’s lawyers filed an appeal.
They also applied for a stay of execution of the order and an injunction restraining Chief Ikpea from carrying out the order pending the hearing of her appeal.
The 64-year-old woman said the husband disregarded the appeal and the motion for stay of execution and went ahead to throw her out.
In a video recorded by her daughter who came to fetch her after she was left stranded outside her matrimonial home, she said some hired thugs sent her packing bare-footed without concluding arrangements for where she would stay.
Billionaire Ikpea had married Agnes under native law and custom. He later married a new wife – who allegedly used to be his sidechic – under the same native law and custom and sought to end his marriage to Agnes.
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