A 42 year old woman, Mrs. Odeyemi Joke who has married to Akintunde for the past 20 years with children that have married, got an Ado-Ekiti Customary Court in Ekiti state to dissolve the marriage, complaining that the husband was lazy as he refused to work to take care of the family. She also complained that her husband was in habit of frequently beating and threatening her life.
The first child of the couple, Mrs. Sefunmi, 20, had gotten married, while the second child, Kayode, 16, is currently staying with her brother. The last three children are said to be staying with her.
Joke,who resides at No. 18, Oke-Ila, Ado-Ekiti, in her testimony before the court said that her husband always beat her whenever she demanded for money to buy food items. She added that the inability of her husband to pay the tenancy of where they reside made the Landlord to send them out of the house and that this made them to start living separately.
Joke said that she secured another apartment where she resides with the children, while her husband went to stay in his mother’s house, adding that whenever he comes visiting, he would foment trouble in the house.
The mother of five said that her husband was not ready to work, thereby making it difficult for him to feed his family, adding: “there was a day he threatened to kill me with cutlass. I reported him to his aged mother and younger brother and they said that they were fed up with his behaviour.”
“He does not bother to take care of me and the children, but it is also not convenient because I am a fruit seller.”
It was learnt that the husband had repeatedly refused to appear in court ven as the President of the Court, Mr. Joseph Ogunsemi, concluded that the marriage had broken down and as such it was better for the couple to go their separate ways.
Ogunsemi then granted custody of the last three children to the wife while ordering the husband to be paying the sum of N3, 000 on each of the three children as their monthly feeding allowance.
He also urged that the education of the children should be taken care of by the couple. [myad]