COURT REAFFIRMS ITS RULING IN IKPEA DIVORCE SUIT . . . Warns counsels, Journalists Against media sensationalism

By Mike ALADENIKA

A Benin High Court presided over by Justice Joseph Acha has reaffirmed its stand  in the ongoing divorce suit between an Edo born multi-billionaire oil magnate and industrialist, Chief Leemon Ikpea and his  wife, Mrs. Agnes Ikpea.

The trial  judge, Justice Joseph Acha, who, while presiding over the  case with Suit No. B/747D/2020 which  came for hearing on Wednesday 3rd March, 2021 ruled that the court has not withheld its previous ruling from the case pending the determination on the motion on notice. 

Justice Acha further stated that the court was yet to receive the decision of the Chief Judge of the State, Hon. Justice Esther Edigin upon the petition  by the respondent, Mrs. Agnes Ikpea.

Justice Acha also called on counsel not to misinform the public through the media as it would lead to the destruction of the judicial Institution, just as he maintained that he cannot be subjected to cheap blackmail in the press.

Meanwhile, the subsisting ruling of the court after submissions from Counsels of both parties granted the prayers of the petitioner, Chief Leemon Ikpea that the Respondent, Mrs. Agnes Ikpea be to relocate to an alternative apartment apart from the Banana Island in Lagos in order for them to be alive to face the substantive suit on motion.

The court however made no order to cost but restrained the Respondent from confronting, molesting, harassing, intimidating and causing or threatening violence against the Petitioner, domestic and business staff, relatives, friends or interfering with the petitioners business or domestic life pending the determination of the substantive petition.

It would be recalled that the Respondent, Mrs. Agnes Ikpea, mother of six, married to the Petitioner was alleged to have been in a hot romance with a driver under the employ of her husband (The Petitioner).

The respondent (Agnes IKPEA), who could   be said to be comfortable in all manners  was alleged to have publicly gone stark naked in protest over the sack of the driver for his nefarious activities.

Insiders revealed that the about 63 years old billionaire’s wife could not, allegedly, hide her romantic feelings for the driver when based on his arrest by the police in Lagos after been caught at a criminal hangout smoking cannabis (aka Indian hemp) got booted by the business magnate.

In solidarity with driver, the respondent, Mrs Agnes IKPEA was said to have  outrightly rejected a new driver that her husband employed to replace her sacked driver, an action that further fuelled fears about her illicit love affair with the recalcitrant driver.

 A source in the know said on several occasions, the business mugul was said to have raised issues over missing huge sums of money in hard currency,  just for the embattled wife to, allegedly, throw caution into the wind and engage in physical confrontations with the husband.

 It was also alleged  that some of the missing currency got into the hands of the younger brother of the wife who is said to have sneaked abroad with the supposed stolen fund.  

 “At a point in time, the husband in was said to have been unable to bear any of this and as such, invited his mother-in-law to intervene in the matter, but to everyone’s surprise, 

her response was that he (the husband) came to Warri to look for money, so also is her daughter in Warri to look for money.

 The source further disclosed that one of the reasons why the marriage has broken down irredeemable was the fact that Mrs Agnes IKPEA was alleged to have  shunned several invitations by elders in the village to explain her reason for going naked over the sack of the driver, while it was also further alleged that the estranged woman has set the six children of the marriage against their father.

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