A Senegalese migrant worker living in Italy has pressed charges against his own father over a breach of trust on the grounds that his old man to whom he had remitted CFA2 million as dowry for his girlfriend, used the money to marry the same girl, the daily newspaper l’AS reported on Tuesday.
Distance did not dampen the 42-year old immigrant search for love and became betrothed to the young hairdresser in her twenties, who like him hails from the same district of the city of Diourbel (center, 160 km from Dakar).
At the end of a three-year courtship, the young man decided to take the proverbial plunge and sent his father CFA1million as the first wedding obligation.
The immigrant had wanted the wedding to be before or on the heels of the Korite or feast of Eid fitr, signifying an end to a month-long period of fasting (Ramadan) marked last June, but his father, in his sixties, calmed his son’s burning desire by talking him into waiting for the Tabaski (Eid el Kabir), scheduled two months later, when he would take the gift to the prospective bride.
Unsuspecting about his father’s real intentions, the son accepted and still showed the same naivety when at the appointed date, his old man again fobbed him off with another excuse to wait.
This time he told his son to wait until the eve of the Magal (departure date for exile of the founder of the Mouride brotherhood).
As the date arrived, the man assured his son that he would ask for the girl’s hand in marriage on his behalf but with an additional CFA1 million to grant his wish, bringing his total expenses to CFA3 million.
His son still taking his father’s word for it, sent the extra money.
However, the old man who was already with two wives took the girl who was poised to be his daughter-in-law as his third wife.
His immigrant son was gobsmarked beyond words upon realising that his father of all people had used his own money to marry the girl he has been daydreaming about while abroad.
According to the newspaper, the son still smarting from the “betrayal” requested a friend in Diourbel to file a complaint against his father over breach of trust and for the return of the stolen money.
L’AS said the young man came under heavy pressure from his own mother to abandon the case against his father failing which the old man will be left with no choice but to face the magistrate’s court in Diourbel.
CAT/fss/as/APA