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| Shrine Photo:Google |
44-year-old woman, Susan Lijadu for 20 years. But the marriage is on the brink
of collapse and he wants a divorce.
Customary Court, Lagos.
problem started in year 2000 when her husband became blind as a result of an
accident.
According to her, he became suicidal, aggressive and very jealous and in 2013
he forced her into making a covenant with him.
She said, “Since he became blind everything about him has changed. He once
tried to kill himself but I pleaded with him and assured him that everything
will be well.
“He also became aggressive toward me and one day he nearly strangled me to
death and if not for our neighbours who came to my rescue I would have been
dead.
“Three years ago he ordered me to buy a
cockerel, three kolanuts, bitter kola and alligator pepper. I was stripped in
the presence of one herbalist from Ondo State.
“I was told to swear that no other man will ever see my nudity or have any
sexual intercourse with me except my husband.
“All the items were buried in a hole dug in front of our room,’’ she said.
Susan told the court that her husband,
who did not make the same covenant with her, had now impregnated one of their
tenants and wants to divorce her.
“My husband wants to dump me after putting an embargo on me,’’ she said.
Folarin denied forcing his wife to swear to an oath, adding that she was the
one who urged him to make her take the oath and that he did not swear with her.
He said that he filed for the dissolution of their marriage when he could not
control her.
He said, “When I became incapacitated, I sent my wife to computer school and
opened a shop for her to enable her take care of the home financially.
“She stopped going to shop and started selling petrol at the junction of our house
which I did not support.
“During one of our arguments in December 2015, she bathed me with kerosene and
threatened to set me ablaze.
“I did not impregnate our tenant, I am not interested in the marriage again. I
want a divorce,’’ Folarin said.
The Court President, Mr Awos Awoshola, reprimanded them on the oath taking.
“No one can predict what will happen tomorrow, we humans are always changing.
We want something today, that thing might become what we detest tomorrow,”
Awoshola said.
Awoshola added that before the court could dissolve the marriage, the covenant
must be broken and that the two parties must provide evidence that the oath had
been revoked.
He ordered both parties to maintain peace and adjourned the case till May 24
for further hearing.
