Divorce: My husband wants to kill me, wife tells court

The petitioner further stated that her husband set all her cloths ablaze, violently took away her three-year-old child, and publicly embarrassed her mother.

An Ibadan-based wine trader, Iyabo Sule, has asked the Mapo Grade A Customary Court, Ibadan, to dissolve her three-year-old marriage with Tunde Sule on alleged insensitivity.

Ms Sule, a resident of the Isale-Afa area of Ibadan, made the request during her testimony before S.M. Akintayo, president of the court.

“My lord, trouble began when I told Sule to avail me the opportunity of visiting the first two children I had from my first marriage,” the disgruntled woman stated. “He never complained when I informed him that I had two children with my first husband, but Sule started nagging each time I mentioned them in his presence.”

She accused her husband of taking away her source of livelihood that was sustaining her and her child.

“Recently, I took permission from Sule to visit the two children at Moniya, but he beat me black and blue when I returned. In fact, neighbours warned me to stay away from his home because he had vowed to kill me if he ever came across me again,” Ms Sule. “Worse still, Sule has shut down my shop and moved away all the goods and commodities there.”

The petitioner further stated that her husband set all her cloths ablaze, violently took away her three-year-old child, and publicly embarrassed her mother.

In his defence, however, Mr Sule accused his wife of committing adultery and consented to the dissolution of the marriage.

The respondent, a truck driver, argued that he granted his wife’s wish to visit her children but that she refused to return home for many weeks without any explanation.

“My lord, Iyabo stayed with her children for six weeks without calling me. One day, people advised me to check on her at the shop, and when I went, I saw her attending to many customers,” explained Mr Sule. “When Iyabo sighted me, she fled, suspecting that I had unravelled her secret. I decided to sit down outside the shop, and a man came to sit beside me, holding a mobile phone containing a picture of him and Iyabo hugging each other.”

Speaking further, he stated, “The following day, I packed all her goods away because I was the one who gave her money to buy them.”

He claimed that he raised N300,000 for his wife to start the business.

Consequently, the court’s president ordered the respondent to produce the child he took and the goods in court.

Akintayo adjourned the suit until February 8 for judgment.

(NAN)