Court dissolves 7-yr-old marriage over abandonment

A customary court sitting in Ake, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has answered the prayer of a housewife, Memunat Tijani, that her seven-year-old marriage to her husband, Moruf Tijani, be dissolved. Memunat had told the court that Tijani abandoned her for three years “without looking back” after a “minor” disagreement between them. She said, “I have been […]

A customary court sitting in Ake, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has answered the prayer of a housewife, Memunat Tijani, that her seven-year-old marriage to her husband, Moruf Tijani, be dissolved.

Memunat had told the court that Tijani abandoned her for three years “without looking back” after a “minor” disagreement between them.

She said, “I have been sleeping alone, without him, for the past three years. Since he has refused to come and beg me and my family, I plead with the court to separate us and let us go our separate ways. All I want is just for him to continue to perform his responsibility on our two children, Bilal and Murisiku.”

Responding, Tijani claimed that Memunat had a “very bad character.”

He said, “I abandoned her because she sent my mother out of the house at 12 midnight. She is in the habit of fighting with almost everybody in the house. We had to pack out of our former house at Oke-Aregba because of her penchant for fighting with the neighbours,” he said.

Tijani equally agreed that the marriage be dissolved “in the interest of peace.”

In dissolving the marriage, the president of the court, Mrs Olorunwo Sam-Obaleye, granted the custody of the children to the wife “for motherly care.”

Sam-Obaleye also ordered that the defendant should be responsible for the school fees of the two children and also pay N7,500 monthly as their feeding allowance.