New Telegraph

Court dissolves 11-year-old marriage because of threats to life

An Ado-Ekiti Customary Court yesterday dissolved an 11-yearold marriage between Adebayo Oluwafemi and his wife, Funmilayo, on grounds of threats to life. The parties had earlier given their evidence on July 14 while judgement was reserved for yesterday. Oluwafemi (40), a resident of Omisanjana, along Igbo-Aso in Ado-Ekiti, told the court that his wife was fond of putting up bad behaviours toward him. He also described her as being an extravagant person, wayward, a slanderer and a pathological liar.

The man added that his wife was fond of telling him that she would kill him and that nothing would happen to her. He said that his wife had said several unprintable things about him whenever they had misunderstandings in the past. The father of two also described his wife as a wayward woman, saying that she used to engage in night crawling, and not returning home until late at night. The plaintiff, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that he could not trust Funmilayo. He also said that she was fond of behaving in a way that was pleasing to her; stopped cooking for him and did not care for him any longer.

Oluwafemi told the court that he did not want to commit murder because his wife did not give him peace of mind at home; hence, his decision to call for divorce. The petitioner pleaded for the dissolution of the marriage, saying he could not cope anymore and prayed for the custody of his children: 10-year-old Peace, a female and one and a half years old boy, Samson.

But the respondent, Funmilayo (37), a resident of Omisanjana area in Ado- Ekiti, denied the allegations levelled against her. She said that her husband had failed in his duty by not providing for their children, especially, their first child who gained admission into a second ary school. She said that she was the one responsible for the welfare of their children, which she attributed as the major cause of their constant misunderstandings. Funmilayo said that her husband changed the keys to the major entrances into their house when they had a misunderstanding and since then, she had been staying in her church. She admitted that though her husband was always buying raw foodstuffs in the house, she said that it was hard for him to give her money for the other needs of his family.

The respondent, however, did not support the dissolution. The Court President, Mrs. Olayinka Akomolede, who observed that the marriage had broken down irretrievably; consequently, dissolved the marriage. Akomolede ruled that the custody of the children should be awarded to the respondent, and that Samson should be released to his father when he had attained seven years of age. She also ordered that the petitioner must be responsible for the education of his children and must allow the respondent to remove her valuables from his house.

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