We’ve married for 20 years but never lived together —Wife
A man, Olabisi Afolayan, has told an Osogbo Grade 11 Customary Court in Osun State how he once caught his wife, Folasade, having sex with a pastor’s son inside a church near their house.
He lamented that he could no longer condone the promiscuity of his wife, disclosing that she also ran away with a man in 2003, abandoning her matrimonial home for four years.
Olabisi, who said his marriage of 20-years was blessed with five children, approached the court to dissolve the marriage over his wife’s alleged adulterous ways.
“The cause of the fight is her adulterous ways and she causes problems for me because she once ran away with another man in 2003 and I did not find her until 2007. By the time she came back, I had married another wife. Attempts at reconciliation were made but I refused. She invited the police to harass my second wife until she ran away,” Olabisi said.
According to him, “she once told me that she wanted to go and buy bread, and that was how she disappeared for three days. I also came back from work one day and was told she was not around, I later heard her voice and traced her to a church near our house.
“When I got there, I found my wife and the pastor’s son having sex. I went to get a cutlass, but before I came back, they had fled. I want the court to know that I am not the father of our sixth child and I am not responsible for the pregnancy she is carrying,” Olabisi added.
But Folasade said that the marriage was blessed with six
children and she was pregnant with the seventh child. “We have six children and not five and we have been married for 20 years, but we have never lived together because of constant fightings,” she said.
According to her, “the problem began when my husband took me to a herbalist, who demanded evidence of my menstruation. I told my pastor about it and he advised that I should not live together with him again. But after that, we rented an apartment and started living together.
“This was when I became pregnant with our sixth child and this year, we have slept together and it resulted in the pregnancy I am carrying,” she said.
Delivering his judgment, President of the court, Chief Popoola Bolarinwa, said, “the defendant has now agreed that the sixth child, now three-year-old, does not belong to the plaintiff, which is a proof of adultery.
He said, “adultery is a major reason for granting divorce. The court decides to dissolve the marriage on the grounds of acceptance of adultery by the defendant. The plaintiff should be responsible for the upkeep of the children with a sum of N2000 per child making a total sum of N10,000 monthly.
“He should be responsible for their education and medical expenses.
The plaintiff is also granted right of access either through the court or as mutually agreed,” he ordered.
