‘The only thing my husband does is to impregnate me; he neither feeds the family nor pays school fees

A woman, Taiwo Yerokun has pleaded with Grade A Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, to dissolve the 9-year-old wedlock between her and her husband, Sina Yerokun.

Taiwo in her divorce suit stated irresponsibility, neglect and nonchalance attitude towards their children’s welfare as her reasons for opting for divorce.

Taiwo in her testimony said, “I met my husband after I relocated from Lagos to Ibadan.

“We dated for a while and I moved in with him in 2013.

“Sina refused to pay my parents a visit before and after we got married, neither did he pay my dowry.

“Our marriage is blessed with two children. I had our first child in 2014 and the second in 2018. All that my husband knew to do was to impregnate me. He never gave a dime for my antenatal and post natal care during both pregnancies.

“I bought the baby items, paid the fees for the regular medical check-ups and the delivery.

“Our kitchen was always cold because no cooking held there. My husband never gave me feeding allowance which made cooking for the family impossible.

“He left between N700 and N800 per day for food for the whole family. He refused to add to this amount despite my complaint that the price of food items were going up by the day.

“Since we couldn’t afford to cook, we resorted to buying our meals from food vendors. These apart from being small in quantity were not satisfying because of the bland taste.

“Our children were always looking underfed as a result of their poor eating habit,” the plaintiff stated.

She added that, “My husband has refused to be caring and loving to our children.

“He is indifferent to our children’s education. He refused to enroll them in school. Sina insisted that our first child, a three-year-old, was not ripe enough for school when I suggested that we put him in a nursery school.  I had no option than to enroll him in a public school a few years after this because of paucity of fund.

“I enrolled our second child in a private school which was charging its tuition fee per day.

“Sina doesn’t care if our children live or die. My lord, I have always been responsible for our children’s medical care from their day one. I pay for their drugs and hospital bills the few times they were on admission.

“We occupied two rooms in the building we were living in. Sina denied our children access to the second room we used as the living room by locking the door. He stated that the children would spoil the electronics he put there.

“I reported him to his relatives who admonished him, but he refused to change.

“I stood as his guarantor when he wanted to buy a motorcycle for commercial purpose, because I felt we would start experiencing a better side of life, unfortunately, the children and I felt no relief when he started the business. I didn’t know what he spent his gain from this business on because he never stopped complaining of paucity of fund.

“I got fed up with the way he was maltreating me and our children and told him I was no longer interested in our wedlock.

“I moved out of his house last year September with our children and moved into my family house.

“He has not asked after our children since we have been separated. The only time the children set their eyes on him was on New Year day when he paid them a visit and gave them a ridiculous amount of N200.

“My lord, I am no longer interested staying married to my husband. I now fare better living separate from him. I entreat this court to rule that we are no longer husband and wife,” Taiwo appealed.

The court president, Mrs S.M Akintayo, having heard the plaintiff adjourned the case for further hearing.