‘It’s my new religion or no marriage’

A 37-year-old man, Idris Afegbua, has told an Abeokuta Customary Grade II court how his wife, Omolola, rejected his conversion to Islam, which he said brought irreconcilable differences between them. Afegbua, who had approached the court to dissolve his two-year marriage to Omolola, said they were both Christians before he converted to Islam. He added […]

A 37-year-old man, Idris Afegbua, has told an Abeokuta Customary Grade II court how his wife, Omolola, rejected his conversion to Islam, which he said brought irreconcilable differences between them.

Afegbua, who had approached the court to dissolve his two-year marriage to Omolola, said they were both Christians before he converted to Islam.

He added that she had bluntly refused to embrace the religion and, consequently, there had been no peace in the house.

“We were both Catholic members before I became a Muslim. We got together in 2016 through a family introduction. After my conversion to Islam, all efforts to convince her to let us have a Nikkai had been futile. It had been constant quarrelling every time and we were not just getting along well together,” he said.

 Omolola was absent at the second hearing of the suit yesterday, a development that the court president, Chief Olalekan Akande, described as “her inability to contest the suit.” 

Chief Akande, therefore, granted Afegbua’s request to quash the relationship, which didn’t produce any offspring, and directed the court clerk, Mr Adesina, to put Afegbua under oath.

 In a related development, the court also quashed the one-year-old marriage of a 25-year-old carpenter, Yusuf Lawal, to his wife, Isiwatu Lawal.

 Lawal had prayed the court the court to end the marriage, which produced only one child, an eight-month-old baby, because of what he alleged were violent attacks and threat to his life from Isiwatu. He showed an injury on his left hand to buttress his allegation.

Isiwatu had failed to appear in court at the last two adjournments, a development that led to the decision of the Akande-led court to dissolve the marriage.

 The custody of the baby was, however, given to Isiwatu, who is still breast-feeding the baby, while Lawal was directed to be giving her N5000 monthly as upkeep.