SOWAH J.
The petitioner asks for a declaration that the marriage celebrated between the respondent and himself is null and void on the grounds that at the date of the celebration of the marriage there was a valid and lawful marriage subsisting between himself and one Rose Amoah.
The respondent disputed the averment in the petition and herself cross-petitioned for the dissolution of the marriage on the grounds of cruelty and adultery.
The petitioner, who struck me as a person of intelligence with a considerable grasp of the English language, told the court that on 7 November 1959 he went through a form of marriage with the respondent, the former Cecilia Akoto, at the offices of the then Municipal Council. He stated that the provisions of the Marriage Ordinance, which are normally read to persons entering into matrimony before the registrar were read to him before the marriage. He also told the court that he had already been married under customary law in 1950 to one Rose Amoah with whom …