She left home for five days to visit her parents. When Umma Bashir returned, her bedroom was locked, her clothes were piled in the sitting room, and a stranger’s padlock stared back at her.
Her husband had rented out her room.
Now the housewife is in Sharia Court II, Magajin Gari, demanding justice — and a roof.
“He told me the room belonged to him and that he could do whatever he wanted with it,” Umma told the court, her voice shaking as she described coming home to find her family of three squeezed into a single room.
The court heard that Bashir Ibrahim initially gave his wife two rooms. But while she was away, he leased out one without her knowledge.
Her belongings were moved. Her space was gone. Her children, two teenagers, were left to share one room with her.
Umma said the betrayal cut deeper because her husband’s other two wives each live in separate two-bedroom flats with their children.
“I would not return until he provides suitable accommodation,” she declared.
Bashir Ibrahim admitted renting the room, but denied doing it in secret. He told Judge Malam Musa Sa’ad that he planned to use the rent money to renovate another apartment for Umma to relocate to. “The proceeds were for her new residence,” he said.
But the judge was not moved. “Providing adequate shelter is a fundamental responsibility of a husband,” Malam Sa’ad told the packed courtroom. He noted that forcing a woman and two teenage children into one room while co-wives enjoy two-bedroom flats each was “inappropriate” and against the welfare of the family.
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The judge has adjourned the case to allow court officials inspect the home and see for themselves how Umma and her children are living.
For now, Umma remains out of the house she once called home — waiting on a court decision, and on a husband who rented out her privacy while she was away.
