A man, Adekola Ayodele, has dragged his ‘wife’, Bolanle, before a Mapo Grade A Customary Court in Ibadan, seeking divorce on the grounds of battery.

Mr Ayodele, a mechanic, said, “I never enjoyed any moment of peace since I married my wife. Bolanle has no regard for me. She sends her brother to beat me up for no reason.

“Worse still, she nearly killed me the last time because she (grabbed) my private parts with the intention to cut it off.

“In fact, Bolanle got me arrested over a matter I knew nothing about. In short, her wish is to control me,” the embattled mechanic told the court.

He pleaded with the court to grant him custody of the two children and restrain the respondent from coming close to him.

However, Bolanle, a trader, was silent on most of the allegations levelled against her.

“My lord, everything I did was in self-defence. Our last fight had to do with the issue of who should take the children to school. 

“My relatives and his have tried on many occasions to intervene, but no amicable solution was reached.

“I squeezed his private parts because Ayodele put his hands on me. He grabbed my neck in an attempt to strangle me. He starves our three children, and I am not interested in the marriage anymore,” Bolanle said.

In her judgment, the court’s president, S.M. Akintayo, held that Mr Ayodele could not substantiate his earlier claim that he paid the bride price before securing Bolanle’s hand in marriage, rendering the traditional marriage invalid.

The court’s president held that since the petitioner could not remember the amount he paid as bride price to the respondent’s parents, he did not pay anything.

According to her, there is no marriage to be dissolved between them.

The court’s president, however, said that since they were no longer interested in living together under the same roof, they were free to go their separate ways.

She granted an order restraining Bolanle from further threatening, harassing, and interfering in the personal life of Ayodele. 

(NAN)