You can sue your partner for refusing to honor his/her marriage promise to you.

By Stanley Alieke, Esq.

Top Trend: Man Sues Kannywood’s Hadiza Gabon For Refusing To Marry Him After initially promising to marry him.

It was trending in the news earlier this week that a 48-year-old man by the name Bala Musa took a legal step against a popular Kannywood actress, Hadiza Gabon, before the Shari’a Court in Kaduna state for allegedly refusing to marry him after she initially promised to marry the plaintiff.

The complainant told the court that he had been in a relationship with the actress and she promised to marry him and out of the hope that the lady will marry him in no distant time he kept spending money on the lady and kept sending the lady money for upkeeps. He is therefore asking the court to grant him damages against the lady for breach of the promise to marry him or ask the lady to honor her promise to him and get married to him as they initially planned.

As ridiculous as this suit May look, as frivolous as approaching the court on issues like this may appear, readers should note that whenever a person promises another person that he or she is going to get married to the person and any of the people broke the promise or refused to marry the other person as promised it will be solid ground to bring an action in court seeking for damages for the breach of promise to marry.

Cases like this are not of novelty to the Nigerian courts as there have been a plethora of cases that bother on similar facts like the one above where a person promised to marry another and they subsequently reneged on the promise and the aggrieved person approached the court seeking redress.

Just like in the case of a contract, a party to a contract can approach the court to seek redress if the other party fails to live by the promises he made while going into contract with the other person. He can sue for breach of contract so also a person who already accepted a marriage proposal but later turned down could sue for breach of promise to marry.

A breach of promise to marry is not a criminal offense but it is, however, a civil wrong for which an aggrieved person can sue for damages.

In a case where a man who is not lawfully married to a woman promises to marry the woman as an inducement to sleep with her or to keep having sex with her, it becomes a ground for criminal liabilities and the man could be jailed for this act as provided in section 383 of the Penal Code act.

This section provides thus:
“Every man who by deceit causes a woman who is not lawfully married to him to believe that she is lawfully married to him and to cohabit or have sexual intercourse with him in that belief shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.’

Breach of promise to marry is a valid ground to approach the court to seek redress and ask for damages and is treated grievously by the court so If by any instance anybody at all has promised to marry you but later reneged on his or her promise, you should approach the court and seek redress and the court will grant your prayers based on the merits of your case.

Stanley Alieke Esq is a lawyer based in Abuja.
infoitooknow@gmail.com

Even as wonderful as this news sound, i never stil believe say na dis country e wan happen.

Why you go sue me untop watin

Richy4:
That bridge of promise would be really cool in Nigeria if people should take it serious... I don't see how a man will see a lady through university.. and she promised to marry him... Only to graduate and feel that he's below her standard... It's morally wrong on all sides..

Approaching the court should such situations happens should be the best option... Let her pay for damages..or refund every penny...

'Breach' of promise is boldly written there not 'bridge'.

Richy4:

I corrected it as u may have been typing to correct me .. it was a typographical errors.. it's not a big deal

Pride kills. When someone corrects you, just say thank you. No big deal.