My mother-in-law is an intruder in my family, man tells court

A father of three, Dauda Lawal, yesterday told an Ile-Tuntun customary court, Mapo, Ibadan, how his mother-in-law allegedly instigated his wife to abandon his home.

Lawal, who described his mother-in-law as an intruder in his family, argued that she masterminded the separation of his wife from him.

His wife, Abosede, had approached the court seeking for the dissolution of their 20-year-old marriage.

In her petition, Abosede said, “I wish to dissolve our marriage because my husband doesn’t care for me and the children in the marriage. Whenever I stayed long at work, he would accuse me of going to meet another man. He wasn’t giving me any peace of mind. There was a day he sent me out of the house after beating me black and blue.

“I realised that if I continued staying with him, he could kill me. That was why I moved out of his house last September. And he never showed repentance. He never paid for our children’s school fees and their feeding. Please separate us.”

Lawal, maintaining Abosede was lying about his assault on her, threw the court into laughter when he added his wife was always provoking him and “anything could, however, happen in the process.”

He begged the court not to end the marriage. “I still love my wife. I don’t want to divorce her. She is the only wife in my life. I cannot begin to look for another wife at this age,” he pleaded.

In his ruling, the president of the court, Chief Henry Agbaje, frowned at the husband for refusing to involve his fatherin-law on the challenges in his matrimonial home before allowing his wife to abandon it.

Agbade adjourned the case till June 11, 2018 for further hearing and ordered the plaintiff and defendant to come along with their children and family members.