I became hypertensive due to my husband’s beatings —Wife

“My husband is learned but behaves worse than an illiterate. He is a brute who seeks every opportunity at beating me. He nearly snuffed life out of me  through his beatings when I was pregnant and even after  I was delivered of our baby. He has turned me into a hypertensive patient because of his troublesome nature.

“He also comes to my work place to harass and fight me which I find embarrassing.

“He doesn’t care  about our children’s welfare and has totally  failed  in playing  the role of a responsible father towards them.

“I left his home and moved into the house which I have just built because I could no longer bear his threats and beatings. Our relatives mediated in our differences;  we made up  but I didn’t move back to his house. He pays me visits in my place and sometimes spends the night there.

“But he gradually went back to his old ways. I have decided to sue for divorce because he accused me of stealing N140,000 from his car.

“The last time I drove in his car was January. He stopped me from entering his car when we had a misunderstanding early this year. Since then I have been moving around in public transport.

“I’m his second wife. He said he took my name, that of the other wife and her children to some places to find out who stole the money. According to him, I was said to be the thief.

“My lord, I’ve had enough of my husband’s misdeeds. I’m fed up with our relationship. I have lost my dignity and peace since I got married to him. I believe the best thing is to part ways since he has now concluded in his mind that I’m a thief. “

These were the words of Tawakalitu Adesokan before Ile Tuntun Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Tawakalitu is seeking the dissolution of her marriage to her husband, Aderemi Adesokan, whom she accused of being irresponsible towards the children and beating her at every opportunity.

She prayed the court to dissolve their 12-year-old marriage and grant her custody of their children.

The defendant debunked all the allegations, stating that he was the one who ought to be suing for  divorce but was only considering the children.

“I  should be the one suing for divorce and not her, but I don’t want our children to be psychologically affected.

“My wife has a string of lovers who call her at odd hours. She’s still dating her ex-husband and they converse regularly on phone.

“I have come across several love messages from her lovers on her phone describing how much they enjoyed the romantic moments they had with her.

“I once got so annoyed that I picked her call and caused one of her lovers whose call was frequent. “On one of the Valentine Days, she kept an outfit in her bag when going to work and from work called and informed me that a close friend of hers lost a relative that morning and that she wanted to attend the burial after the close of work. But she went out with one of her lovers and spent the night with him,” the defendant stated.

“To save her face, she complains that I monitor her while she also accuses me of chasing after everything in skirt.

“I have reported her to her mother on many occasions, but she’s used to taking sides with her.

“Of recent, she stole the money I kept in my car. I kept N140,000 but met N34,000. I knew she was the culprit because this wasn’t her first time of stealing my money.

“She denied taking the money when I asked her. I, therefore, decided to go the traditional way in looking for the thief.

“I listed her name and that of my other wife and her children. Her name was picked as the thief everywhere I went, but she refused to admit to stealing it.

“She’s a hypocrite; she has learnt how to touch people’s  emotions and  get  their sympathy by weeping whenever she misbehaves,” he said.

After listening to the duo, the court president, Chief Agbaje Olasunkanmi, adjourned the case till May 2 for further hearing.