A woman, Bukola Ejalonibu, has sought the dissolution of her 23-year marriage at Oja Oba/Mapo Court C Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, citing drunkenness, destruction of her property and diabolic acts by her husband, Kolawole.
According to Bukola, Kolawole is diabolic and always uses juju on her before sex.
She also alleged that Kolawole would drink, get drunk, beat me mercilessly and then set my clothes on fire.’
She added that he cared less about her and their children and that he’s now threatening to kill her.
Bukola, therefore, begged the court to stop their marriage and grant her custody of their five children.
Kolawole assented to divorce.
The defendant explained that he did all within his power to make his wife happy but that she was never satisfied.
According to him, she abandoned her responsibilities towards him in the home and took to partying. He told the court his wife was fetish and that his mother-in-law was always taking her to spiritualists.
Bukola, giving her evidence said:
“My husband spends a fortune on alcohol. He would drink and not stop until he’s drunk or tipsy.
“I am always at the receiving end when he’s in this state. My husband will descend on me with blows and leave me with bruises
“Kolawole is bent on ruining me. Many times after having an argument, he would throw my belongings out of the house and set them on fire.
“He went to my shop and destroyed the goods there. Kolawole broke bottles of expensive wines in the shop among other things.
“He threw me and our children out of the house and we resorted to sleeping in the shop. But my husband being a mean person came to fight me again there.
“He threw me and our children out of the shop. He refused to be placated even when the children, weeping, knelt to beg him.
“We again moved out of the shop and had to keep our belongings with different people while we squatted somewhere else.
“I later sold my car and used the money to rent an apartment where my children and I are presently staying.
“He came new to our new place of abode to arrest one of our children with five policemen. According to him, our son was in possession of his money which according to him was a large amount.
“I employed the service of a lawyer before the matter was resolved.
“My lord, my husband is diabolic and was in the habit of using charm on me whenever he wanted to have sex with me. I always felt weak and dizzy for days after we had had sex and this invariable took its toll on my health.
“My husband and I became a source of ridicule in our neighbourhood because we never ceased to fight. One of our neighbours recorded a scene of our fight on her phone and forwarded it to me. I felt embarrassed and ashamed of myself when I saw it.
“Kayode took to harassing and threatening me. He threatened to kill me.
“My lord, I’m fed up with my husband’s maltreatment of me and our children. I don’t wish to go further in our marriage. I, therefore, beg this honourable court to dissolve our union, “the plaintiff stated.
On his part, Kolawole accused Bukola of neglecting her home and children, noting that she refused “to cook for me after I built her a two-bedroom flat, set her up in a business and bought her four cars. All she cares about is attending parties.’
“My lord, my marriage to Bukola has ended years ago, what we came to do was to make our separation formal and well documented. I declare before this honourable court that I assent to divorce,” Kolawole said.
“There is no way I can stay married to a woman who daily neglects her home. My wife is never bothered about my welfare or that of our children. What steals her fancy is partying and this explains why she was hardly ever at home.
“Bukola is my only wife and I sought after her happiness but she ensured she frustrated all my efforts.
“I set her up in a business, a supermarket to be precise, but she paid me back with evil.
“My wife stopped cooking for me because she felt she was now a big woman and this was apart from the fact that she was never at home.
“I gave Bukola reasonable sums to maintain her business, the least amount being N100, 000 but she still took to embarrassing me by taking loans from micro finance banks without my consent. I always get to know about these when these banks start harassing and embarrassing her. And the banks would stop at nothing in collecting their money back.
“My lord, I’m a responsible person. I take good care of our children and also enrolled them in good schools.
“Bukola lied that I set her property ablaze.
“I built her a two-bedroom flat and also bought her four cars but she was not contented.
“My wife took to visiting different spiritualists with the assistance of her mother. I warned her against this practice but she turned a deaf ear to me.
“My lord, it is true I beat her. I did so because she’s stubborn and has become a pain in the neck,” he concluded.
Giving his judgment, the court president, Chief Ademola Odunade, observed their relationship had broken down completely.
Ruling, he dissolved their union and put their first two children in the defendant’s care and the last two in the plaintiff’s custody.
He instructed the defendant to be responsible for their children’s education.
He further added that he should attend to their medical needs any time they demanded for it.
Both were advised to maintain peace.
