Legal practitioner and entrepreneur Ms Adaobi Alagwu has alleged that she was deceived into a purported customary marriage by Tunde Ayeni, based on what she described as false representations regarding his marital status.
Alagwu also denounced the former Skye Bank Chairman’s recent interview, titled “I Regret Ever Meeting Adaobi Alagwu”, as false, malicious, and defamatory, calling it a distraction from the substantive issues.
Responding through her legal counsel, Indemnity Partners, led by Chief B. C. Igwilo, SAN, Alagwu maintained that her relationship with Ayeni began on the premise that he was married under customary law and therefore lawfully entitled to take another wife.
In their statement, her lawyers disclosed that Ayeni had arranged and financed a Deoxyribonucleic Acid, DNA, paternity test overseas, which confirmed with 99.9999% certainty that he is the biological father of her child.
“Without doubt, our client and Dr Tunde Ayeni went out as consenting adults premised primarily on the misrepresentation by Dr Ayeni of his true marital status. He had represented to our client that he was married under customary law and therefore could also marry her without legal fetters,” part of the letter stated.
The lawyers further alleged that Ayeni subsequently adopted a hostile stance towards Alagwu and her family, launching what they characterised as an unprovoked campaign of public antagonism.
“Our unsuspecting client was therefore later tricked into a purported customary marriage with Dr Ayeni. This relationship begat Baby Ayeni who was named by Dr Ayeni with all her given names. Dr Ayeni is also recorded as the baby’s father in her international passport and official birth records.
“In the course of time, Dr Ayeni personally sponsored a DNA paternity test abroad and the report was 99.9999 per cent certainty. Further, Dr Ayeni was later to develop intense public antagonism towards our client and her family, often spewing verbiage, without reaction in kind by our client,” the letter added.
Alagwu’s legal representatives also dismissed as baseless Ayeni’s allegation that she had tampered with the DNA process by hacking into his wife’s email account.
“The interview was clearly designed to ridicule, defame and destroy the reputation of our client,” the letter stated.
