After several unsuccessful interventions to save an 11-year-old marriage, an Igando Customary Court in Lagos has dissolved the union of Mrs Adeola Olalere and her husband, Amidu, over constant battery.
The President of the court, Mr Akin Akinniyi, said while delivering judgment in the case on Friday that the petitioner was adamant despite all mediation by the court and family members.
“Since the petitioner insisted on divorce after several interventions, the court has no choice than to dissolve the union in spite of the fact that the husband claims he still loves his wife.
“The court has pronounced the marriage between Mrs Adeola Olalere and Mr Amidu dissolved today; both parties henceforth cease to be husband and wife.
“Both are free to go their separate ways without any hindrances and molestation,” Akinniyi said.
The petitioner had earlier told the court that her marriage of 11 years to her husband, Amidu Olalere, had been full of bitterness resulting from constant battery.
“I have fainted seven times during frequent beating by my husband. I sometimes landed in the hospital and regained consciousness two to three days after.
“Recently, he beat me to the point that I fainted and I was hospitalised for four days.
“When I was on admission, none of his family members came to see me and we all live in a family house. My husband also refused to pay the bills.
“There was a day he dragged me outside, stripped me naked and descended on me, using me as a punching bag. He did not stop until he saw blood coming out of my body.
“He is so rough, quarrelsome and violent in nature,” the mother of four said, describing her husband as a chain smoker and alcoholic.
“Whenever he brings his friends home to smoke and I complain, he will beat the hell out of me and will not leave me until I faint,” Adeola said.
The 39-year-old trader alleged that her husband had “turned me into his Automated Teller Machine as he collects money from me to give to his friends to buy Indian hemp.
“If I refuse to give him, it is always war in the house,’’ she added.
The petitioner urged the court to terminate the marriage, and that she was no longer interested because her husband might kill her one day.
“Please, end this loveless marriage; I may not be lucky to regain consciousness next time my husband beats me to a pulp,” she said.
Aminu, however, did not deny the allegation of battery.
“I beat her regularly because she is very stubborn and does not obey my orders; anytime we have a misunderstanding and I slap her, she retaliates and that makes me get angry the more,” he said.
The respondent accused his wife of starving him of s*x.
According to him, whenever he reports the wife to the mother, she will ask him how many times he will be having s*x with her daughter.
“My mother-in-law would ask me not to kill her with s*x, instead of admonishing her,” he said.
He said his wife was going out without permission, and that he was the one cooking and washing the children’s school uniform on such occasions.
According to him, his wife moved out of his house with the children in January to stay with her mother.
The defendant said the mother-in-law would rain curses on him whenever he called the wife to return home.
“There was a day my mother-in-law cursed me, and I also cursed her that thunder would kill her.”
-NAN
