My wife connived with her lover to beat me, man tells court
A husband, Abayomi Oreyemi, has approached a Mapo Grade A Customary Court in Ibadan to dissolve his 22-year-old union to his estranged wife, Basirat, on the grounds of battery and waywardness.
Oreyemi, a father of four, made the prayer in his counter- argument against his wife’s allegation against him of irresponsibility, lack of love and domestic violence.
“At around 9.30 p.m. on a particular night, a man called Baba Aliya, who I later got to know as her lover, came to drop Basirat in my house with his car.
“Aside that day, I had met the two of them together in my matrimonial home before, and in fact they beat me on account of my curiosity. My lord, I don’t want her to bear Oreyemi again and I prefer to take custody of my children,” he pleaded.
Earlier, Basirat, the petitioner who earned her livelihood as a civil servant, told the court that her husband had never demonstrated any capacity that he truly love and care for her.
“For our first child, it was my mother that paid the hospital bills. Worse still, he beats my younger sister and I at any slightest opportunity. Furthermore, since our landlord expelled us from our apartment, I was forced to live with a close friend.
“Also, since our children started schooling, Oreyemi has contributed nothing to their education and I’ve been solely responsible for their sustenance. He even broke into my bedroom during the last Eid festival when I travelled to my hometown,” Basirat said.
She tendered evidence of the damaged door before the court.
Basirat also said that there was no valid marriage between both of them, as Oreyemi did not pay the necessary bride price to her parents.
Delivering judgment, the court’s President, Mrs S.M. Akintayo, held that there was no marriage to be dissolved between the petitioner and the respondent, because there was no evidence of valid marriage between them.
According to Akintayo, for any union to be considered as a valid marriage, there must be presentation of bride price, formal handover of the bride to the husband and presentation of gifts.
