An Upper Area Court sitting in Kubwa, Abuja, Tuesday ordered Atiku Abubakar to immediately hand over his three sons to his estranged wife, Maryam Sherif.

Abubakar is the son of a former Nigeria’s vice-president with the same name.

The order was given yesterday by Honourable Bashir Danmaisule while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Sheriff against her ex-husband.

Sherif, who originally instituted the case against Abubakar at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Gudu, Abuja, challenging the decision of Atiku to deny her custody of her children whose ages range between six and four years.

The case marked CV/41/2019 was later transferred to the Upper Area Court, Kubwa, with number CV/16/20202 wherein the claimant prayed the court to grant her custody of their three sons.

Delivering judgment, Hon. Danmaisule held that in accordance with the Islamic Law, custody of the children lies to her so long as she is not married to another man.

He insisted that since Sheriff has remained single since they separated, the defendant should hand over the children to the claimant with immediate effect.

The judge also expunged the testimonies given by the five witnesses produced by the defendant in the course of the trial on the grounds that the witnesses were too close to the defendant and their testimonies were bias.

The claimant’s counsel, Nasir Saidu, applauded the judgment of the court.

However, neither Abubakar nor his counsel was in court. According to the court registrar, a call was put across to Abubakar’s earlier in the day but he said the judgment could proceed in his absence as he had other matters to attend to.

Upon judgment, the judge held that appeal is allowed in the Sharia Court of Appeal within 30 days from the day of judgment.