A pastor’s wife, Mrs. Uzoamaka Ibeneme, on Friday lost her 21-year-old marriage when an Igando Customary Court in Lagos, dissolved the union on grounds of adultery, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.
President of the court, Mr. Akin Akinniyi, who delivered the judgment, said the petitioner, Pastor Joshua Ibeneme, was adamant in spite of the mediation by the court and family intervention.
He said, “Since the petitioner insisted on divorce after several interventions, the court is therefore left with no option but to grant him his wish and pronounce the union dissolved.
“The court hereby pronounces the marriage between Pastor Joshua Ibeneme and Mrs. Uzoamaka Ibeneme dissolved today.
“Both of you will henceforth cease to be husband and wife, each of you should go on his or her separate ways unmolested.
“The court wishes both of you well in your future endeavour.
“Any squabble between both you from now on shall be treated as criminal and any violation of this judgment will be regarded as contempt of court and will attract imprisonment without option of fine.”
Earlier, the 53-year-old had approached the court to end his marriage to the woman, who he said was messing around with church members.
He said, “My wife had sexual affair with two of my church members, a deacon and a bishop. Both of them were telling my other members that they slept with my wife because she enticed them.
“Whenever I return from a trip, my last born always tells me that men came to pick and drop my wife. Even God told me to divorce her or else she will destroy my ministry.
My wife starved me of sex for more than five years; whenever I want to sleep with her, she would give one excuse or the other and in fact, she has moved out of my room to a separate room.
“But she gives it to my members freely.”
Meanwhile a five-year-old marriage between a 35-year-old trader, Bilikisu Azeez, and her husband, Olusesi, was also dissolved by the court on Friday.
Bilikisu had told the court that her husband, Olusesi, starved her of sex for more than two years, a development which, she said, had affected her health.
She said, “My husband has been starving me of sex since he married his youngest wife; he has turned me to an abandoned property.”
