DESERTION AS A GROUND FOR DIVORCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Desertion is the willful and unjustified abandonment of a person’s duties or obligation to a spouse or family. It is made up of five elements which includes: a cessation of cohabitation, the lapse of statutory period, an intention to abandon, a lack of consent from the abandoned spouse, and a lack of spousal misconduct that might justified the abandonment. This paper examines desertion as a ground for divorce in Nigeria. The researcher adopted the doctrinal research method. The paper states that, desertion is the unilateral withdrawal from cohabitation by a spouse without the consent of the other spouse, without just cause and with the intention to permanently bring cohabitation to an end. The paper concludes that, a petitioner must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the marriage has broken down irretrievably on ground of desertion, for the court to pronounce divorce.