Churchill loses battle as court grants Tonto Dikeh full custody of son, Andre

The child support and custody tussle between Tonto Dikeh and her estranged husband Olakunle Churchill has ended with the actress winning full custody of their son, Andre Omodayo Churchill.

In 2017, Tonto and her ex-husband were engaged in a court case that was on a child support and custody battle. She won the case but decided not to publicize it “out of respect for her son.”

Churchill recently sued the actress for what appears to be a breach of the court’s orders given at the time, but she won the case against him again at the Abuja customary court. However, the father of Andre was granted conditional visitation to his son.

While speaking to reporters after court proceedings, the actress’ legal counsel Barrister Ukechukwu C Uju-Azorji, described the case as a very dramatic one.

He cited instances where Churchill’s attorney filed a N200k case against Tonto to foot the bill for Churchill’s transport to and from Ghana to attend court as they felt Tonto was using Andre’s school runs as a tactic to drag the case. But that was overturned.

Last December, the 33-year-old screen goddess claimed she’s the only parent providing financial support to her son, Andre, even after Churchill was told to pay N200K monthly for his upkeep, barely a year after taking full custody of him.

Tonto Dikeh and her estranged husband Churchill are parents to Andre Omodayo Churchill

This somewhat sparked speculations that Tonto had denied Churchill the visitation rights which he was legally awarded.

Responding to the allegations, Uju-Azorji confirmed the reports explaining that the visitation rights were based on some conditions which he has failed to meet.

He indicated that Churchill failed to pay for child support and some other expenses of their son, adding that, the father was instructed by the court to pay for a confidant who will supervise the visits after Tonto proved to the court that she cannot trust Churchill around King alone at his young age.

Uju-Azorji also said Churchill agreed to pay Andre’s school fees directly to the school but he stopped after paying once and they have emails from the school to back their claim.