An Igando Customary Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday dissolved a 30-year-old marriage between Mr Kayode Akinyade and Mrs Iyabode Akinyade.
The court, with Mr Koledoye Adeniyi as president, in its ruling said the marriage between the couple could no longer hold and was thereby dissolved due to fetishness, disrespect, home abandonment, infidelity, and quarrels and threat to life.
“The court rules that after a careful review of the allegations made against each other, there is no more love due to suspicion of infidelity, threat to life and the involvement of the petitioner in polygamy which does not go well with the respondent.
“The court although finds nothing wrong with the petitioner marrying another wife because it is allowed under the African tradition, more so when the parties married each other under the native law and tradition.
“The court frowns at the way the respondent abandoned her matrimonial home for years without consent from her husband which is wrong.
“On the issue of fetishness, the court believes inefficacy of charms being a customary court but the petitioner could not prove it against the respondent,” said Adeniyi, the Court President.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the petitioner, Mr Akinyade, a resident of No 236b, Ijegun Road, Lagos, a civil servant, had accused his wife, Iyabode, of being fetish and threatening his life.
“She had made several utterances to terminate my life; when I’m sleeping she will sneak into my room to watch me sleep with a mean stare.
“She is also so much in love with money, I am afraid of her as no amount of money I give her is enough to satisfy her.
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“If I ask her to lend me money, she will pretend to borrow it from outsiders and she will double the interest meant to be paid on it.
“She’s also fetish; one day I saw her bathing in the middle of the night, after she was done she used a black cloth to wipe my car.
“On several occasions when I wake up to pump water she would pass by without greeting me until when she returns from the backyard that she would greet me.
“When I get to the backyard, I would see white substances, leaves and kola nuts on the floor.
“In addition, she also sprinkles water which is not ordinary water.
“Also, each time I finish eating and I leave the apartment, she would sprinkle white substance on my footsteps.
“As regards her unfaithfulness, anytime I call her from Delta where I stay and I ask if she’s home she would confirm in the affirmative, meanwhile I have been informed by neighbours that she’s not around,” he said.
The petitioner further told the court that his wife was very stubborn and did what pleased her and that he had once caught her cheating when he read her chats with her lover.
He also said that she had abandoned her home twice, the first time for two years and the second time for seven years.
He said that she was fond of quarrelling with him and his tenants and had given him a bad name in the neighbourhood through blackmail whereby people began to avoid him.
The respondent, Iyabode, a trader, in her evidence said that she met her husband 32 years ago when she took a male friend to him for prayers.
She said that her husband ended up seeing a prophecy that her glory was greater than the male friend hence she should not go ahead to marry him.
“So, he started toasting me and I agreed, even though there was a revelation from my father’s church not to go ahead to marry him.
“He said I’m in love with money but I can categorically say that he has never given me N5,000 before.
“My daughter had to beg him to give me money to establish me so I can stop going about hawking branded drugs, but he refused.
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“My father, being the founder of a church, usually gave us holy water to sprinkle around the house and bath with which he willingly does.
“It is not also true that I am unfaithful, I stopped telling him many things because of the other wives he had.
“When I travelled to London, he would ask me to send him money which I always did because where he was working was in disarray because of mismanagement and he needed my help.
“I would always send him money every week but by the time I came back, I met an empty house.
“That was because he married a lady in his place of work and she had wrecked him and ran away with everything,” she said.
The respondent further told the court that she never had a boyfriend all through her stay in London; neither was she quarrelsome nor stubborn nor caused him public embarrassment.
After evaluating the two testimonies, the court ruled that the 30-year-old marriage be dissolved.
It ordered the petitioner to pay the respondent N450,000 as severance allowance, N400,000 to enable her to secure accommodation and N250,000 to enable her to take care of her health challenge.
