An Ojo Customary Court in Lagos is set to dissolve a 10-year-old marriage between a 48 year old Pastor, Onyekwere Osondu and his wife who the husband suspected to have eloped to Liberia with another man since last year.The Court President, Chief Joseph Ogunmola has ordered the court bailiff to contact any member of Ogechi’s family to witness the final judgment dissolving the marriage as all reconciliation measures had been exhausted and failed.
Pastor Osondu had told the court that the wife, Ogechi, travelled to Liberia over a year ago under the guise that she went to stay with her brother,but he had cause to believe that she had found comfort in the arms of another man.
“Prolonging this matter is not pleasing to me; although the court made several efforts to get my wife or someone from her family to appear before the court, there was no positive response”, the petitioner said.
“I am a man of God and I must maintain my moral status; her absence has made me to live like a bachelor for over one year and that is becoming more unbearable.
“Since my wife abandoned me and went to Liberia, I need to move on with my life. I cannot remain single forever; I need to remarry”.
“It was in trying to search for her that her mother invited me to come to the village and that was when I learnt that she had joined her brother living in Liberia”, Osondo stated..
“Her family members summoned me and claimed that I maltreated her because she had no child for me, but this is not true”.
The petitioner explained that Ogechi later sent him a text message, which read: “God has delivered me from you and I have changed my name to my maiden name”.
“When I informed her that I had filed a divorce suit, she responded by saying, ‘thank God. I am a man of God and I have carried out all traditional settlement required,” he said.
He alleged that his wife must have found comfort in the arms of another man in Liberia and prayed the court for a divorce.
“She is, obviously, fed up with the union and her refusal to return should not prolong the judgement of this court,” Osondu said. [myad]
