A 39-year-old petty trader, Yemisi Akinwunmi, on
Friday pleaded with an Agege Customary Court in Lagos to end her 20-year-old
loveless marriage to free her from pangs of daily corporal punishment meted to
her by her husband.
“My husband constantly
beats me and whenever he wants to do so, he tells me to kneel down and stretch
my hands like a pupil before caning me.
“He often threatened to
kill me,” she told the court.
Testifying before Mr
Phillips Williams, the court’s President, she said there was no love lost
between them again.
Yemisi described her
husband of 20 years as an irresponsible man, who has refused to take proper
care of her and the children.
She said she had been
solely responsible for the feeding and upkeep of the children since her
husband lost his job.
“I made effort to
secure a loan for my husband from a cooperative bank to start a small business
with a promise by him to pay back in installments.
“But after a few
months, he refused to pay and attempt to get him to refund the money was
unsuccessful.
“My husband started
threatening to kill me and dispose of my corpse without anybody knowing.
“I am fed up with the
marriage; there is no love between us again. I can no longer bear the pains and
humiliations,” she said.
She, therefore, urged
the court to dissolve the marriage and to compel the respondent to be
responsible for the welfare and education of the children.
The
respondent, Wasiu, 49, however, denied the allegations and
pleaded with the court not to dissolve the marriage.
According to him, his
wife started misbehaving and became promiscuous the moment he lost his job.
Wasiu, who claimed to
have caught her in the act of adultery, said:“My wife later told me that she
was fed up with the union and she moved out of the house with the
children sometime in 2015.
“However, after much
pleading, she returned home later in 2016 only to start engaging in adultery; I
have caught her on several occasions.
“My wife stopped
cooking for me since July 2016 and finally moved out of the house.”
The respondent said he
made efforts and begged his wife to return, especially for the sake of the
children, but she remained adamant.
The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president of the court invited the estranged
couple to his chambers for a possible resolution of the crisis.
He adjourned the case
to April 11 for further hearing.
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