CHARLES ADAMU FRIMPONG v. MARGARET ADDO

MERLEY A. WOOD (MRS), J.A.

In this appeal against the judgment of the Circuit Court, Accra, delivered on 21st June 2018, the Petitioner/Appellant seeks the setting aside of the aforesaid judgment.

The matters that have given rise to the instant appeal are as follows:

The Petitioner/Appellant (hereafter referred to alternately as the Petitioner or the Appellant), brought an action for the Court to annul the marriage celebrated between himself and the Respondent on the 29th September 2012.

In his petition, the husband Petitioner alleged that he married Ewura Ama Baiden under the Ordinance on 29th April 2004 at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. He, a driver who is ordinarily resident in London, then subsequently fell in love with the Respondent in 2011 and married her customarily on 22nd January 2012 and same was converted into an Ordinance marriage on 29th September 2012 at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly despite being married to Ewura Ama Baiden. After the marriage, the parties cohabited at Sowutuom Chop Bar in Accra before moving to Ablekuma NIC, Accra. There is one child of the said marriage.

He alleged that he provided all the necessaries of life for the Respondent and the child of the marriage, that he bought a house at Ablekuma NIC with proceeds of goods sent by his first wife and moved the Respondent and the child into the said house. Since he is on retirement, he proposed to the Respondent to rent out the house and give some of the proceeds to her to start a trade but she refused to move so that the house would be sold and rather lodged a complaint at the Ablekuma Police Station that he wanted to move her out. Furthermore, he averred that the Respondent and her mother after selling the items sent down by his first wife, spent the money. He also alleged that the Respondent’s brother whom he bought a car for, sold same and kept the proceeds while his father-in-law for whom he also bought a car only paid back One Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHȼ1,000). It is his case that he has not had any sexual intercourse with the Respondent since the birth of their child and that he still lives with his lawful wife in London.

The Respondent on her part denied all the material allegations of the Petitioner in her Answer and Cross Petition. She alleges that she was oblivious of the existence of the Petitioner’s first marriage, that the Respondent has refused to maintain the child of the marriage since 2017, that she commenced divorce proceedings against him in suit no