‘I’ve endured pains, anguish in my 14 years of marriage’

A mother of three, Mojisola Akinola, has asked an Iletuntun Customary Court, Ibadan, to dissolve her 14-year-old marriage to Abiodun Akinola over her mother in-law’s alleged cruelty. Mojisola alleged that her mother-in-law had been threatening, for 14 years, to kill her if she insisted on staying with her son. She said since she got married […]

A mother of three, Mojisola Akinola, has asked an Iletuntun Customary

Court, Ibadan, to dissolve her 14-year-old marriage to Abiodun Akinola over her mother in-law’s alleged cruelty.

Mojisola alleged that her mother-in-law had been threatening, for 14 years, to kill her if she insisted on staying with her son.

She said since she got married to Abiodun 14 years ago, she had endured “horror, sorrow, pains and anguish” in the hands of her mother-in-law.

Mojisola said, “If I had received any prophecy not to marry Abiodun in 2004, I would not have exchanged vows with him on the altar. My lord, little did I know that Abiodun’s mother was not happy with my engagement to her son.

“Just three months after our wedding, I started seeing Abiodun’s mother in my dreams warning me of the impending danger that awaited me if I don’t pack out of her son’s home. Abiodun’s mother had not only attacked me spiritually, she has also launched physical attacks on me.

“The three children I have had with Abiodun were through painful surgery, with the placenta coming before the baby.”

Mojisola said Abiodun himself had not been a source of happiness to him as his mother had convinced him that she was an adulterous wife.

“That is despite my faithfulness to him. As a result, he started threatening he would make me suffer the exact fate that befell my mother. I do not know the circumstances that surrounded my mother’s death because I was too small when she died. Maybe Abiodun’s mother knew about her death,” she said.

The respondent opposed the divorce suit though he didn’t deny any of the issues his wife raised against him.

“I am still very much in love with Mojisola and I am ready to resolve all lingering issues surrounding her complaints. Our wedding is a legal one,” Abiodun, tendering his marriage certificate, said.

After a careful deliberation on the matter, Chief Henry Agbaje, president of the court, advised the warring parties to employ an out-of-court settlement.

Agbaje added that the case was beyond any customary court because the marriage was well backed by law. He struck out the case over lack of jurisdiction.