Former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode has filed a counter affidavit to a suit by his estranged wife Precious Chikwendu at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Chikwendu wants the court to award her N800 million as damages in a fundamental rights suit, claiming harassment from the police, the inspector general of police (IGP), and Mr Fani-Kayode.
She also prays the court to restrain the IGP and his officers from intimidating and harassing her in any form pending the hearing and determination of her suit seeking the custody of her four children.
In a bid to clear his name, however, Fani-Kayode filed a counter affidavit to her suit. He asked the court to dismiss the suit for lack of merit and for constituting an abuse of court process.
“I know that the instant suit is nothing but a smoke screen intended to avoid the long arm of justice and to malign me.
“There is no merit whatsoever in this suit, which was filed in abuse of court and judicial process. It is in the interest of justice to dismiss this suit for lacking in merit.
“I conscientiously depose to this counter-affidavit from facts within my personal knowledge, and in good faith, believing same to be in accordance with the Oaths Act currently in force,’’ Fani-Kayode deposed in his counter-affidavit.
On the alleged separation from her children, Fani-Kayode deposed that Chikwendu opted to leave her matrimonial home and consciously abandoned the children.
“As a fact, it is not surprising that Precious is capable of such reckless abandonment, because whilst she was with me in the house, she employed 12 in-house nannies to cater to the children, excluding supervisors and nurses who equally attended to them.
“She did not at any time extend maternal care to the children, for the reason that she had a medical condition which deprived her of any filial bond with them; she deprived the children of the natural sucks or breast milk, also on account of the need to preserve her body shape, coupled with a contrived medical condition which she claimed would not permit her to breastfeed them,” Fani-Kayode further deposed.
The matter comes up for hearing at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday.