Couples seek divorce after 10 years
By Edith Igbokwe
Mrs. Mujidat Olapo has dragged her husband,Sharafa, to Oshodi Customary court, praying the court to terminate their 10- year marriage.
She is accusing her husband of being negligent, uncaring and lying.
She claimed that there was no more love between them as he abandoned her and the two sons (ages 10 and 7 years) for five years for another wife.
She appealed to the court to separate them and grant her the custody of the children while demanding that the court should mandate the respondent to foot the responsibility of taking care of the school fees and the feeding allowance of the children and other things the court deemed fit for the children.
According to her, the marriage was contracted on June 17, 2010 during the naming ceremony of their first son, just to formally join the union, claiming that her husband paid only N1,000 as bride prize to her family.
“I got to know that my husband has another wife in 2013 when I was pregnant of my second born. I and the other wife fought at my mother-in-law’s party in July 2015 and since then, my husband had abandoned me and my children in a two-room apartment we rented and he has since been living with the other wife till date. None of his family members has ever come to reconcile us nor ask about my welfare and that of my children.
“Even when I was about to be chased out of the two-room apartment my husband left us in because I couldn’t cope with the rent, I called my mother-in-law and she promised to come but didn’t show up till now. I later got a room apartment which I can cope with and continued with life,” she told the court.
Responding to the allegations, the husband, who also confirmed that there was no love lost between them any more, asked the court to separate them.
He however appealed to the court to grant him the custody of the children rather than keeping them in care of their mother.
The husband, who claimed that up to date, he pays the children’s school fees and gives them N3,000 weekly for feeding, admitted that he has left them as claimed by his wife since 2015.
He said the marriage was no more working, asking the court to allow them go their separate ways in peace.
Meanwhile, the Court President, Mrs. Adebisi Oladitan ordered that the school fees receipts of the children be provided at the next sitting while the sum of N15,000 was approved for monthly upkeep of the children to be paid by the husband, while plan for the father to have access to his children was made.
She advised both parties not to make negative comments about each other in the presence of the children to avoid sowing seed of discord in the minds of the young ones.
Short adjournment was made to December 3, this year for the children to be brought before the court for examination before the final judgment.
