A 98-year-old man, Mohammed Tahiru, on Wednesday approached an Ilorin Area Court to claim the money he allegedly spent on a 24-year-old woman he planned to marry.

The plaintiff claimed that the woman, Alaba Tahiru, a former resident of Seriki-Gambari compound in Ilorin received an undisclosed amount of money from him with a promise that she would marry him.

Tahiru said, "I worked as an Imam, and people come to me for assistance, which I rendered.

"Alaba was introduced to me in 1999 by her elder sister, Iyabo Seriki, and since then, I have been assisting her.

"One day, I asked her about her husband, and she replied she had no husband, which prompted me to propose to her."

He told the court he had wanted to marry the defendant, so that she would be taking care of him and his younger children.

He claimed that the defendant accepted the proposal and always came around to cook and helped in doing some domestic works.

The plaintiff claimed that he gave N24,000 to the defendant for her graduation from tailoring apprenticeship in addition to previous expenses he had incurred on her.

"Immediately after the graduation, the defendant changed suddenly and stopped coming to help before I was told that she was pregnant for someone else," Tahiru said.

The plaintiff pleaded with the court to recover the money he spent on the defendant.

The Judge, Mr Yusuf Abdulkareem, then adjourned the case to Aug. 15, for continuation of the case and to enable the plaintiff call witnesses to buttress his claim.