An Ontario appeal court has sent three children back to Nigeria and the custody of their father, rejecting their mother’s arguments that she could not get a fair shake in that country because of patriarchal attitudes and anti-gay prejudice.

The case of Olubukola Ajayi and Eyitope Ajayi is one of a growing number of disputes in Canada that set concerns about international child abduction against arguments about unfairness and discrimination in foreign jurisdictions.

Ms. Ajayi argued in court that she was justified in bringing their three young children to Canada without the father’s consent last November, because of discrimination, abuse (which Mr. Ajayi denies committing), patriarchal attitudes and the influence of her ex-husband’s family in Nigeria.

She asked the Ontario Superior Court to assume jurisdiction for the couple’s parenting issues and grant her sole decision-making authority over the children.

On the same day, Mr. Ajayi asked a Nigerian court to dissolve the marriage.

In Nigeria, homosexual acts may be punished with jail sentences. Mr. Ajayi made reference in a court document filed in Nigeria to Ms. Ajayi being linked to the LGBTQ community. That forced Ontario judges, in an initial ruling and an appeal, to grapple with how Nigeria’s legal system operates, and determine whether its courts would put the children first.

“I ran here just for a fair shot at protecting my rights as their mom,” Ms. Ajayi, who trained as a lawyer in Nigeria, said in an interview. Both she and her ex-husband are dual citizens of Canada and Nigeria, as are the children; Ms. Ajayi travelled to Canada to give birth to the children here.

But the courts here, she said, “did not understand how being a man in Nigeria gives all this extra privilege and power. I had never planned to alienate my children from their father and his family. But I knew that that’s what they wanted to do to me in Nigeria.”

Paul Riley, a lawyer for the father, said the decision showed that Ontario courts will stand up to child abduction.

“I think what the decision shows this week is that Canada is not going to embrace those who involve themselves in child abduction. You are not going to leave your country and then wrap yourselves in the warm embrace of the Ontario judicial system.”

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Canada is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which sets out the legal rules for returning children to their home jurisdiction. But Nigeria is not a member of the convention, and Ontario law provides that the province’s courts may take jurisdiction in such a case where it is satisfied that the foreign country does not put children’s best interests first.

A two-woman, one-male panel of Ontario’s Divisional Court released a written ruling this week explaining why they had upheld Family Court Justice Tracy Engelking’s decision to reject jurisdiction in the case. Having taken the children without consent, Ms. Ajayi needed to show they would suffer serious harm if returned to Nigeria, Justice Elizabeth Sheard, Justice Katherine Swinton and Justice David Aston said.

The judges said they accepted Justice Engelking’s ruling from May that Ms. Ajayi had failed to do so. Justice Engelking found that Ms. Ajayi had only ever said she might be asexual, and that Mr. Ajayi himself had testified in Ontario that he supports gay rights. An expert in Nigerian law testified that none of this would be a factor in determining the children’s best interests in a Nigerian court.

Justice Engelking also ruled the children were not at risk of harm with their father, noting that Ms. Ajayi had left the two older children in their father’s care for an extended period when she came to Canada to give birth. As for the father’s family’s influence, Justice Engelking pointed out that Ms. Ajayi’s mother is a superior court judge in Nigeria.

The children are now back in Nigeria. Ms. Ajayi said she will not return to Nigeria but her lawyers will fight in that country for primary custody for her, “and to have them returned back to me.” If they do not succeed, they will ask for video call access and holidays with Ms. Ajayi in Ottawa.

Nigerian students challenge English language proficiency requirements as unnecessary, discriminatory

Nicholas Bala, a professor specializing in family law at Queen’s University, said that more mobile societies have produced growing numbers of international family law disputes.

“In the absence of persuasive evidence of abuse or discrimination, it’s appropriate to send these cases back to the country of origin – which also has the effect of telling people that Canada is not going to become a haven for child abduction,” he said.

He said it is also a “question of balance.” In some countries, politics may wrongly enter family-law disputes. “I think the court was satisfied that Nigeria in 2022 is not one of those countries.”

Ms. Ajayi’s lawyer Valerie Akujobi said it’s a challenge when Canadian courts have to make determinations based in part on attitudes and sentiments in a foreign jurisdiction.

“The court does try to strike the right balance; in this case, we just felt that certain aspects had been perhaps lost in translation.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mother-loses-appeal-in-custody-case-ontario-court-sends-her-three/

She opened a gofund me seeking assistance of 100k Canadian dollars hmmmmm







Assistance Required: Nigerian-Canadian Survivor/Escapee of Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Intimate Partner Violence.

On the 19th of November 2021, with my three children aged four (4) years, two (2) years, and two (2) months old at the time, I escaped my severely abusive (physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, verbal, and financial) marriage and relationship of ten years. I and my children are Nigerian-Canadian and we lived with my ex-husband in Nigeria for about 5 years.

Just as I found the courage to request for an end to my toxic marriage, my ex-husband and his family became very threatening and specifically, his father, in a move to intimidate me, explicitly and menacingly told me that he would absolutely not tolerate a divorce, and should I attempt to do so, he would take my three children from me, including my new-born infant! The very next day, I disrupted my entire life, and I fled for Canada, my second home country; enduring an arduous journey from Nigeria to Canada with my three young children in tow.

Knowing my ex-husband would come after me for escaping and saving my children, I immediately engaged legal services when I arrived in Canada to protect my rights as a mother. Being a dual citizen, I had prayed that the courts in Canada would accept jurisdiction to adjudicate custody arrangements and parental rights, and shield me from being victimized by the patriarchal and shifty landscape in Nigeria that my ex-husband and his family would no doubt use their wealth and influence to exploit.

My ex-husband submitted a Divorce and Custody Petition to the courts in his state of origin, Ekiti, Nigeria (though our residence and our lives were based in Lagos State) making several false and inflammatory allegations in an attempt to scandalize me before the courts and society in general. He is seeking full custody of my children together with his mother, and has outlined in his court filings his reasons for doing so are because I “look and behave like a man”, I am “mentally unstable”, “undomesticated and not the primary caregiver of our children", “a member of the LGBTQIA+ community”, a “bra burning feminist”, and an “atheist'', thus making me an unfit mother. His mother as well submitted her nursing certifications and has testified before the court that she is better suited to raise my three children.

Any one of the above allegations would easily condemn a person in a deeply religious and culturally conservative country such as Nigeria. It has been/is nauseating to see him lean into base bigotry, outright lie, and manipulate half-truths just to punish me for leaving his life-threatening clutches, and our dangerous marriage.

I have spent months and my family has spent tens of thousands of dollars navigating the legal landscape in Canada. I have been heartbroken multiple times by how harshly I have been dealt with. My attempts to communicate the level of danger I was/am in has simply been lost in translation. Ultimately, the courts declined jurisdiction and ordered a return of the children to Nigeria with or without me, and if necessary with the use of police force. I have also been ordered by the courts to pay my ex-husband’s legal expenses and court fees in the amount of $45,000.

Like many survivors of abuse, I KNOW my abuser and I KNOW that I cannot be near or within reach of him because with him, my life is in jeopardy. In choosing my safety, I have decided not to return to Nigeria, and I am now forced to fight and forge ahead for now, without my children.

I am starting my life from scratch; my finances, mental health, physical health, and life force have been severely depleted as I have been in survival mode for an extended period. I need all the help, and assistance to recover, start anew, and gain some strength to continue my fight for my children, on whom I will NEVER give up.

Here is a breakdown of the expenses for which I am fundraising:

$45,000: Court ordered Fees to be paid to my ex-husband’s legal team.
$35,000: Debt incurred for my own legal fees.
$30,000: Therapy and Living expenses as I build the bandwidth and strength to find my feet again in Canada and become gainfully employed.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/assistance-needed-nigeriancanadian-dv-survivor

Justice served......rightly so.


This should serve as a lesson to spouses (male and female alike) who think they can use the advantage of a dual citizenship to rob their partners of child custody because of a disagreement.

Lol. Fam thought the Western judicial system will favour her in their usual bias manner. Everyday isn't Christmas though. All I see is a manipulative being who would have done a lot of psychological harm on her kids if granted custody. Nobody can tell me she isn't mentally ill. Thankfully, Canada will help them dodge that bullet.

Eaztzide:
Lol. Fam thought the Western judicial system will favour her in their usually bias manner. Everyday isn't Christmas though. All I see is a manipulative being who would have done a lot of psychological harm on her kids if granted custody. Nobody can tell me she isn't mentally ill. Thankfully, Canada will help them dodge that bullet.

Seems the court saw through her

This is a completely unnecessary legal tussle.

Now she is asking for donations through Gofundme.

As a lawyer herself, she is supposed to know she cannot take her children out of Nigeria without the acceptance of the other parent, who is their father.

Fear Nigerian women... This one want to outsmart her husband not knowing her husband is a Christian biblical Solomon. Overtaking went south!

ednut1:
Seems the court saw through her

Exactly! Very happy the jury was women-dominated so that she won't cry the "misogyny" call her types are known to use!

Best decision for the children; thank God.
Cc: justwise, DisGuy, Mynd44, don't you think this story is front page worthy?

This one is a joker on all levels.
You kidnap your own children from Naija wan claim woke give oyibo. Opolo eye nor be open eye Dem no gree hear.

Thunder....

Surgeman:
This one is a joker on all levels.
You kidnap your own children from Naija wan claim woke give oyibo. Opolo eye nor be open eye Dem no gree hear.

Thunder....

abeg, leave thunder for this matter, that nigga call thunder dey craze.

Women

Eaztzide:
Lol. Fam thought the Western judicial system will favour her in their usual bias manner. Everyday isn't Christmas though. All I see is a manipulative being who would have done a lot of psychological harm on her kids if granted custody. Nobody can tell me she isn't mentally ill. Thankfully, Canada will help them dodge that bullet.

For once.... the man won!

Custody battles usually favour the lady but thank God for this man.

A woman with this character would have tried to emotionally manipulate the kids against their father.

Man I love to see the hot sweet tear after this unnecessary legal battle. . .
She will lose pathetically that she will even contemplate suicide. Not curse but fact because she seam to be going about it the wrong way.

what the decision shows this week is that Canada is not going to embrace those who involve themselves in child abduction. You are not going to leave your country and then wrap yourselves in the warm embrace of the Ontario judicial system.”

Another well said fact from the man's lawyer.
This man already have some evidences against you and the fact that homosexuality is a a punishable offense in Nigeria won't help her win the custody case in Nigeria court either lol.
So yall see scorned women can be something else I tell u. I like to see the outcome this case in Nigeria court

Good one, you want to play smart but end up being outsmarted.

GeneralOjukwu:


For once.... the man won!

Custody battles usually favour the lady but thank God for this man.

A woman with this character would have tried to emotionally manipulate the kids against their father.

Honestly! Broken children are products of broken homes and bad parenting

ednut1:
An Ontario appeal court has sent three children back to Nigeria and the custody of their father, rejecting their mother’s arguments that she could not get a fair shake in that country because of patriarchal attitudes and anti-gay prejudice.

The case of Olubukola Ajayi and Eyitope Ajayi is one of a growing number of disputes in Canada that set concerns about international child abduction against arguments about unfairness and discrimination in foreign jurisdictions.

Ms. Ajayi argued in court that she was justified in bringing their three young children to Canada without the father’s consent last November, because of discrimination, abuse (which Mr. Ajayi denies committing), patriarchal attitudes and the influence of her ex-husband’s family in Nigeria.

She asked the Ontario Superior Court to assume jurisdiction for the couple’s parenting issues and grant her sole decision-making authority over the children.

On the same day, Mr. Ajayi asked a Nigerian court to dissolve the marriage.

In Nigeria, homosexual acts may be punished with jail sentences. Mr. Ajayi made reference in a court document filed in Nigeria to Ms. Ajayi being linked to the LGBTQ community. That forced Ontario judges, in an initial ruling and an appeal, to grapple with how Nigeria’s legal system operates, and determine whether its courts would put the children first.

“I ran here just for a fair shot at protecting my rights as their mom,” Ms. Ajayi, who trained as a lawyer in Nigeria, said in an interview. Both she and her ex-husband are dual citizens of Canada and Nigeria, as are the children; Ms. Ajayi travelled to Canada to give birth to the children here.

But the courts here, she said, “did not understand how being a man in Nigeria gives all this extra privilege and power. I had never planned to alienate my children from their father and his family. But I knew that that’s what they wanted to do to me in Nigeria.”

Paul Riley, a lawyer for the father, said the decision showed that Ontario courts will stand up to child abduction.

“I think what the decision shows this week is that Canada is not going to embrace those who involve themselves in child abduction. You are not going to leave your country and then wrap yourselves in the warm embrace of the Ontario judicial system.”

STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT


Canada is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which sets out the legal rules for returning children to their home jurisdiction. But Nigeria is not a member of the convention, and Ontario law provides that the province’s courts may take jurisdiction in such a case where it is satisfied that the foreign country does not put children’s best interests first.

A two-woman, one-male panel of Ontario’s Divisional Court released a written ruling this week explaining why they had upheld Family Court Justice Tracy Engelking’s decision to reject jurisdiction in the case. Having taken the children without consent, Ms. Ajayi needed to show they would suffer serious harm if returned to Nigeria, Justice Elizabeth Sheard, Justice Katherine Swinton and Justice David Aston said.

The judges said they accepted Justice Engelking’s ruling from May that Ms. Ajayi had failed to do so. Justice Engelking found that Ms. Ajayi had only ever said she might be asexual, and that Mr. Ajayi himself had testified in Ontario that he supports gay rights. An expert in Nigerian law testified that none of this would be a factor in determining the children’s best interests in a Nigerian court.

Justice Engelking also ruled the children were not at risk of harm with their father, noting that Ms. Ajayi had left the two older children in their father’s care for an extended period when she came to Canada to give birth. As for the father’s family’s influence, Justice Engelking pointed out that Ms. Ajayi’s mother is a superior court judge in Nigeria.

The children are now back in Nigeria. Ms. Ajayi said she will not return to Nigeria but her lawyers will fight in that country for primary custody for her, “and to have them returned back to me.” If they do not succeed, they will ask for video call access and holidays with Ms. Ajayi in Ottawa.

Nigerian students challenge English language proficiency requirements as unnecessary, discriminatory

Nicholas Bala, a professor specializing in family law at Queen’s University, said that more mobile societies have produced growing numbers of international family law disputes.

“In the absence of persuasive evidence of abuse or discrimination, it’s appropriate to send these cases back to the country of origin – which also has the effect of telling people that Canada is not going to become a haven for child abduction,” he said.

He said it is also a “question of balance.” In some countries, politics may wrongly enter family-law disputes. “I think the court was satisfied that Nigeria in 2022 is not one of those countries.”

Ms. Ajayi’s lawyer Valerie Akujobi said it’s a challenge when Canadian courts have to make determinations based in part on attitudes and sentiments in a foreign jurisdiction.

“The court does try to strike the right balance; in this case, we just felt that certain aspects had been perhaps lost in translation.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mother-loses-appeal-in-custody-case-ontario-court-sends-her-three/

On behalf of women, I say thank you to the court in Ontario. The fact that she could leave two other kids in their father's care while she went to Canada to give birth to the third child means that though her spouse may not be perfect, he is not a risk to the children.

ednut1:
She opened a gofund me seeking assistance of 100k

Omo, people dey donate o Chai, she doesn't deserve one cent o

olalekan9320:
Omo, people dey donate o Chai, she doesn't deserve one cent o

80K in legal costs for something that could have been resolved. Some women today and abuse of feminism ehn.

Na God catch her.

ednut1:
80K in legal costs for something that could have been resolved. Some women today and abuse of feminism ehn.

Hope no one gives her one cent. That's her prize for wanting to take the children away from their father unlawfully.

ednut1:
80K in legal costs for something that could have been resolved. Some women today and abuse of feminism ehn.

She's also asking for $30K for therapy

A closer look at the woman shows she's mentally deranged. The ex husband saw hell. He's one of the few strongest men on earth.

Wahala for who dey marry

ednut1:
80K in legal costs for something that could have been resolved. Some women today and abuse of feminism ehn.

Money that could have gone into mortgage but no