Toke Makinwa Finalises Divorce From Maje Ayida

The estranged marriage between Toke Makinwa, Nigerian radio personality and television host, and Maje Ayida has finally been dissolved by a Lagos High Court on Thursday.

Ms. Makinwa had in March 2016 filed for a divorce from her husband for alleged adultery.

Delivering judgement on Thursday, Justice Morenike Obadina held that Ayida did not give oral evidence in support of a petition he had filed against Ms. Makinwa.

She said the position of the law was settled as pleadings did not amount to evidence.

“Pleadings on which no evidence was led are deemed abandoned. Therefore, Ayida’s evidence is deemed abandoned. The effect is that the petitioner’s evidence is unchallenged and uncontroverted,’’ she ruled.

The judge held Ms. Makinwa had sufficiently proven that the husband committed adultery and been subjected to “mental and emotional stress”.

“I hold that the marriage has broken down on grounds of intolerable behaviour. I hereby pronounce a `Decree Nisi’ dissolving the marriage between Makinwa and Ayida which was administered at the Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Jan. 15, 2014.

“The order Nisi shall become absolute three months from today unless within that period sufficient cause is shown why it should not be made absolute,” the judge said.
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Toke also told the court her husband cheated with his mistress, Anita Solomon, an affair which produced a child. She added that since they got married her husband had “behaved in a way she could not reasonably be expected to continue to bear.”

In her testimony during the trial, Ms. Makinwa tendered some documents including their marriage certificate which were admitted in evidence, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

She told the court that they got married in 2014, but ceased living together from November 8, 2015, without any child from the marriage.

She revealed details of her failed marriage in her memoir titled, “On Becoming”.