Abuja lawyer debunks his colleague’s claim that over 4000 couples have applied for divorce in Abuja in 2020

Abuja-based lawyer, Firsts Baba Isa has debunked claims by his learned colleague that 4000 divorce applications have already been filed in 2020 in Abuja.

Recall that a lawyer, Annebrefa, made the claim on Twitter last Friday, adding that some of the marriages involved were just a year old.

However, Barr. Firsts Baba Isa described the claim as a “lie from the pit of hell” adding that the total number of all cases including divorce filed at the FCT High Court since the beginning of 2020 is not even up to 2000.

Read Isa’s post below:

“This is a lie!
Immediately I saw this tweet, I knew it was a big fat lie. But I still called the appropriate authorities to confirm, it is a lie from the pit of hell.

I don’t know why anyone will put up such a lie out there. But if the purpose is to get people to bash marriage and lose faith in the institution, I think they have succeeded, a lot; see how a massive lie has gone viral. Even those who should know better have been broadcasting this falsehood.

I’m a core litigation lawyer. Family law is one of my practice areas and I handle quite a number of divorce, custody, adoption, maintenance, etc cases. I’m based in Abuja. Bottomline? I know what I’m talking about.

The total number of cases (all cases o, not just divorce) filed at the FCT High Court since the beginning of 2020 is not even up to 2000, yet. So where did she get her figures from? And note that the High Court is the Court that has jurisdiction to entertain divorce proceedings for marriages contracted under the Act (Court Marriage).

Though other inferior courts like the Customary Court have jurisdiction to entertain divorce proceedings for marriages contracted traditionally, but only a negligible number go there for divorce proceedings. So where did she get her 4000 figure?

How many couples dey this our Abuja sef?
Another crazy angle of this lie is that some of these marriages are less than a year old. In law, you can’t bring a divorce proceeding to dissolve a marriage that is less than 2 years old, unless you satisfy some stringent conditions to get the permission of the court.

And less-than-a-year-old marriages have satisfied these conditions and gotten the permission of court to commence divorcé proceedings in two months? Mtcheew.
Na wa o.
Now that it has been proven that Aunty Madam was lying, oya, make una follow share this post o.
– By Firsts Baba Isa (FBI)”