‘My husband beats me and my mother’

A mother of three, Odunola Olaniyan, has dragged her husband, Dotun Olaniyan, before the Oja-Oba/Mapo Court C Customary Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, seeking divorce on an allegation that he beat her and her mother “mercilessly”.   Odunola, in her divorce suit, accused her husband of subjecting her to what she called inhuman treatment and making life […]

A mother of three, Odunola Olaniyan, has dragged her husband, Dotun Olaniyan, before the Oja-Oba/Mapo Court C Customary Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, seeking divorce on an allegation that he beat her and her mother “mercilessly”. 

 Odunola, in her divorce suit, accused her husband of subjecting her to what she called inhuman treatment and making life difficult for her.

 She said the behaviour of her husband was the reason the family had been moving from one house to another because “landlords could not just tolerate him.”

  She told the court, “My lord, I am fed up with my husband. He is fighting with everybody in the neighbourhood. He beats me mercilessly. He even beat my mother when he visited them. I am the one paying the school fees of the three children in the marriage. I also pay the house rent. He has no respect for my family and he is not responsible. There is no love between us again.”

 Olaniyan, a commercial driver, admitted guilt on some of the allegations but denied beating his in-law.

 “The problem I am having with my wife is as a result of the contribution money I borrowed from her. I didn’t beat her and her mother as she alleged,” he said, while agreeing with Odunola that there was no more love between them.

 The president of the court, Chief Ademola Odunade, dissolved the union and granted the custody of their two children to the plaintiff, while the other one child was given to the defendant.

 Chief Odunade mandated the defendant to be responsible for the children’s welfare. He also ordered the defendant to be paying the sum of N10,000 monthly as feeding allowance for the two children with the plaintiff, as well as take care of their education and health.