He would wait till I was in the bathroom and then dash out without leaving feeding
“My lord, it is sad that I’m appearing before the court on a day which marks our only child’s second birthday to seek separation from my husband who has consistently shirked his responsibilities in the home and can’t boast of spending up to N5, 000 on our child since he was born. The only time he ever bought our child something was during his naming ceremony. I‘ve had enough of his uncaring attitude, please, separate us.”
Aminat Oladeji had dragged her husband to Oja Oba/Mapo Court C Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, seeking the dissolution of her six-year-old marriage to her husband, Akeem Oladeji.
Aminat stated before the court that Akeem had failed in his duty as husband and father while he never considered the role of breadwinner his responsibility.
The plaintiff thus prayed the court to separate them and grant her custody of their only child.
She further appealed to the court if her prayer was answered to restrain him from coming to fight her in her home or at her work place.
“My lord, it’s sad and painful that I have to stand before the court today which is our only child’s birthday to seek the dissolution of my six-year-old marriage to my husband.
“Although my husband is alive, I live like a widow because he has passed his role as breadwinner to me. I run our home single-handedly with no contribution or assistance from him.
“He started showing signs of irresponsibility immediately we got married but I overlooked these and helped him in covering up his inadequacies. He got worse when we had our first child.
“He had not spent a dime on our only child since we had him. The only thing he could boast of doing for him was buying the cloth he wore for his naming ceremony.
“He’s not just interested in my welfare and that of our child.
“My lord, I discussed with my husband that we put our son in a crèche since he was displaying some intelligence. I made some enquiries and was told the fee was N50 per day. I told my husband we would need to provide him with two pampers at the cost of N200 per day. He told me to calculate N50 per the 20 days he would attend school in a month and add this to the sum of pampers for the same days. I did and came up with the sum of N5, 000. He told me point blank he couldn’t afford the sum. I, therefore, took up the challenge of meeting these needs.
“My lord, if my husband is going to leave any money at all, it wasn’t more than N100 despite knowing that there was no foodstuff at home. On many occasions, he would wait till I was in the bathroom and run out of the house in order to dodge giving me feeding allowance.
“His friends and other co-traders where his shop is located saw us as nuisance because I had to go to his shop every night to demand money for supper from him. He was always denying having money and would beat me. If he ever gave me, it would be at a very late hour, that is, around 9:00pm when those selling and grinding pepper had gone to bed.
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“I got fed up with his irresponsible acts and moved out of his house when he lied that I wanted to poison him, “the plaintiff stated.
“I’m surprised she told the court I abandoned my responsibilities at home after lavishing so much money on her, “Akeem told the court.
“When we met, she refused to move in with me until I carried out the Islamic marital rites on her. I rented an apartment for her and also opened a shop for her where she sold CDs. I was always supplying her with half a bag of rice and never stopped lavishing money on her.
“I carried out the marital rite eight months after we met and she moved into my house. Despite having a delay in having children, I never stopped lavishing money on her.
“To my surprise, she started mingling with people of questionable character. Any time I asked that she lent me money with the promise of paying back, she would refuse and would prefer to lend her friends money.
“She did this till she ran into problem. She lent them N69, 000 which belonged to the proprietor of the school she was working in but they refused to pay her back. I ended up making a refund of the money to her school.
“She later started misbehaving after I refused that her sister lived with us. I was giving her N500 in the morning and the same amount in the night for food aside ensuring there’s foodstuff at home. I made her to understand that if her sister started staying with us, I would be spending more which I couldn’t afford.
“She later packed her belongings and moved out of my house.
“My lord, I don’t want her again in my life, “he stated.
Having listened to the duo, the court president, Chief Ademola Odunade observed there was no more love between them.
Ruling, he dissolved their marriage and gave custody of their child to the plaintiff.
The defendant was ordered to pay the sum of N3, 000 per month for their child’s upkeep and be responsible for his education and health care.