‘My husband persistently raped my daughters’

The president of a grade C customary court sitting in Mapo, the Oyo State capital, Chief Ademola Odunade, on Tuesday dissolved a nine-year-old marriage between John Dickson and his wife, Mary. Mary, a resident of Idi-Ayunre, Ibadan, had petitioned the court to dissolve the marriage allegedly because of his ‘‘persistent rape of the two daughters’’ […]

The president of a grade C customary court sitting in Mapo, the Oyo State capital, Chief Ademola Odunade, on Tuesday dissolved a nine-year-old marriage between John Dickson and his wife, Mary.

Mary, a resident of Idi-Ayunre, Ibadan, had petitioned the court to dissolve the marriage allegedly because of his ‘‘persistent rape of the two daughters’’ she had before she married him and threat to her life.

She further stated that her husband had taken over the property jointly owned by both of them.

Mary told the court that, “after I got married to Dickson, the two daughters I had with my first husband, eight and 12 years old, sometimes came to spend some days with us.

“However, I observed at a point that the older one stopped coming to visit me. I later discovered that my husband had defiled her and had also been sexually molesting her sister.

“My teenage daughter told her friends, who eventually informed me.

She was afraid of telling me herself as Dickson had threatened to kill her if she did.

“Dickson’s action of sleeping with both mother and daughters is an abomination in our hometown in Cross River State. As a result of that action, my daughter has married and cannot conceive till now and I have been ill for the past seven years, too.

“I was told that a special ritual or sacrifice must be performed before my daughter and I could be well. Besides, Dickson is claiming sole ownership of the house we jointly contributed to build.

“I don’t have anything to take care of myself. Please direct him to be responsible to the two children I have with him and to give me what is due to me.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, Dickson’s step-daughter in question testified against him, revealing all the atrocities her stepfather allegedly committed against her and her younger sister.

Dickson was not in court – the third time – to respond to the allegations Mary levelled against him.

The bailiff asserted that several hearing notices had been served on the respondent, who he said had deliberately chosen not to appear before the court.

Dickson, himself, had in September this year filed a divorce petition against Mary in the same court alleging that she had abandoned him “for no reason.”

Chief Odunade ended the marriage and awarded custody of the two children the couple had together to the plaintiff. He directed the respondent to be paying N10,000 monthly as the children’s monthly feeding allowance.

The president issued a warning that the court might be left with no other option than to order Dickson’s arrest if he refuses to take care of the children.