GH - JOHN APPEA VS DAISY AMA SERWAA PREMPEH

The Petitioner filed the instant Petition on 24th March, 2022 praying for the following reliefs:

1. That the marriage celebrated between the parties be dissolved.

2. That custody of my children be given solely to Petitioner.

3. Each party be made to bear its own cost.

4. Any further order(s) that this Honourable Court may deem fit.

Parties were lawfully married under the Marriage Ordinance (CAP. 127) on 23rd April, 2016 at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Mamprobi, Lartebiokoshie in the Greater Accra Region of the Republic of Ghana. Thereafter the parties cohabited at Dworwulu, Accra. There are no issues to the marriage but of the household namely Adwoa Latebea Appea (9years) and Abena Keeno Appea (5years). There has been no previous proceedings in this or any other court regarding the said marriage.

PETITIONER’S CASE

It is the case of the Petitioner that the marriage has broken down beyond reconciliation due to the unreasonable behaviour of the Respondent. Petitioner avers that the respondent left her matrimonial home for four continuous days without his consent and refused to disclose her whereabouts or give any explanation for her absence. That since the incident, the respondent has refused to sleep on their matrimonial bed and rather sleeps in the visitor’s room for close to one and half years and that the parties have not had sexual intercourse for over six months because of Respondent’s hostile attitude at every attempt to have intercourse with her.

Petitioner testified that the Respondent falsely alleged that Petitioner and his children put strange substance into her leftover food inferring their attempt to poison her. Further to that, Petitioner testified that Respondent abuses his children physically and that has made the home an unfavourable and unloving place for them to reside.

RESPONDENT’S CASE

Respondent denied the averments in her Answer and Cross-Petition stating that she did not leave the matrimonial home for four continuous days without the knowledge of the Petitioner and that the house was fumigated and so she went to stay with her mother and to attend hospital at SSNIT Hospital which was known to the Petitioner and that it was the Petitioner who packed her things from the matrimonial room and invited her whenever he felt like it. Respondent testified that she had a cordial relationship with Petitioner’s children and that the environment in the house was not hostile to Petitioner’s children and that she never falsely accus