Ekiti court dissolves 3-year-old marriage over cruelty

A customary court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, has dissolved a three-year-old union between  Asebiode Foluke and Adeyemo Temitope,  on grounds of  cruelty and  intolerable behaviour. Foluke, 34, the petitioner, had dragged Temitope, 41,  to court for dissolution of her  customary marriage with the respondent because of his  intolerable behaviour, cruelty, rudeness,  arrogance, obstinacy and […]

A customary court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, has dissolved a three-year-old union between  Asebiode Foluke and Adeyemo Temitope,  on grounds of  cruelty and  intolerable behaviour.

Foluke, 34, the petitioner, had dragged Temitope, 41,  to court for dissolution of her  customary marriage with the respondent because of his  intolerable behaviour, cruelty, rudeness,  arrogance, obstinacy and neglect.

The customary marriage is blessed with a child aged 10 years.

Foluke said they started cohabiting in 2009 but she left the respondent in 2012, alleging that he was a night crawler.

She said he was in the habit of coming back home around 10.30 pm when she had slept.

According to her, she left the respondent that year when he beat her up.

Foluke noted that she was not comfortable with the way her daughter was being maltreated by another wife of the respondent.

“I saw my child with marks on her body.  I asked what happened and I was told it was the wife of the respondent that beat her.”

Temitope said he supports the dissolution, admitting that his relationship with the petitioner produced a female child who has been with  him since she was two and half years old.

He debunked the allegation that his wife was maltreating the child, saying, “my wife has been taking care of the child as her own right from the time she was a baby.

The president of the court, Mrs. Olayinka Akomolede, dissolved the marriage with immediate effect giving custody of the only child to her paternal grandmother,  while “during vacation, especially third term holiday, she shall be allowed to spend two weeks with her biological mother, the petitioner.”

Access is granted to the parties to see the child without any discrimination and a right of appeal is granted to any aggrieved parties within 30 days of the judgment.