‘My pastor, in-laws instigated my wife to divorce me’

The president of a Mapo customary court, Ibadan, Chief Ademola Odunade, yesterday dissolved a 15-year-old marriage between Ayobami Oyedeji and his wife, Adeola, over their unresolved marital crisis. Odunade held that the crisis in the marriage deserved the urgent decision of the court because threat to life was involved. He ordered the respondent to take […]

The president of a Mapo customary court, Ibadan, Chief Ademola Odunade, yesterday dissolved a 15-year-old marriage between Ayobami Oyedeji and his wife, Adeola, over their unresolved marital crisis.

Odunade held that the crisis in the marriage deserved the urgent decision of the court because threat to life was involved.

He ordered the respondent to take custody of the first three children in the marriage, while the last child was given to the plaintiff.

The court president said that the court, after listening to the couple’s arguments, had established that Adeola’s parents contributed to the challenges facing the family.

The petitioner had told the court that she intended to divorce her husband because of constant battery.

She said, “My husband was always beating me on trivial issues. I cannot cope again because the beating was too much. He didn’t want to see me again. He wasn’t giving me rest of mind and complained about almost everything.”

Ayodeji initially refused to accept the divorce terms, saying divorce was against the doctrine of his religion and that he was concerned about the future of the children in the marriage.

He said, “It is true I beat her when she started starving me of sex. I told her father to intervene three months after she started that so that the issues could be resolved, but her father did not caution her.

“Also, since we have our own church that we attend, I instructed her never to attend another church, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Returning home from work recently, I caught her in our sitting room with two men whom she later told me were members of her new church. I warned her again but she wouldn’t listen.

“There was a day I overheard her conversation with a man on the phone and she said it was her friend’s husband, which I knew was a lie. When we took the case to our pastor, instead of him to resolve the crisis, he added to it. That was the only time I beat her.

“I have discovered that both my in-laws and our pastors were behind the crisis. I am also ready for divorce, if she insists,” Ayobami said.