A businessman, Alhaji Shehu Marafa , on Friday prayed a Gudu Grade II Court to order his estranged fiancee to return the N 500 ,000 he gave her to plan their wedding.

Marafa filed a suit against Aisha Shetima over her failure to honor the marriage agreement between them .

He alleged that Shetima collected N 500, 000 to plan for their wedding.

In his testimony before the court , Marafa claimed that in February , he went to meet Shetima ’s parents in Bauchi after which he paid N 50,000 as bride price and gave the parents N20,000 , a basket of Kola nuts and a carton of sweets as part of the marriage negotiations.

He then said that after the engagement , the wedding was fixed for April 27 .

Marafa also told the court that 2 weeks after the introduction , she called him and cancelled the wedding because she was no longer interested.

He then said the father returned the N 70 , 000 given to them during the introduction but Shetima refused to return the N 500 , 000 he gave her.

“ I gave her N 200 ,000 cash to her as part of the marriage expenses.

“ I also transferred N 300 , 000 to her account when she started disturbing me for her balance.

“ After she said she wouldn’t marry me again without giving a reason, I pleaded with her repeatedly but she bluntly refused to reconsider.
“ I then informed her father who said he was going to talk to her.

“ A week after , her father called and said she still insisted on calling of the wedding.

“ Her father then returned the N 70 ,000 and paid it into my brother ’ s account who then transferred the money to me .

“ My brother then told me that he told her father that he has forgiven the basket of kolanuts and carton of sweet and so he didn’ t need to return them .

“ Aisha , however, has refused to pay my N 500 , 000 back .” He told the court.

In her defense , Shetima told the court that the reason she called off the wedding was that Marafa didn’ t give her an option .

She said she informed Marafa that the date they fixed would not be convenient for her but he insisted on that date.

“ After telling him that April would not be convenient , he told me that if I didn’ t go ahead with it , he would begin to suspect me .

“ As a result , I decided to call off the wedding, ” she said.

The Judge, Ado Muktar adjourned the case till July 3 for judgment .
( NAN )