Court dissolves banker’s 6-yr-old marriage over childlessness, battery

The president of the Grade C Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, Chief Ademola Odunade, yesterday dissolved the six-year-old marriage between a businessman, Ibitoye Oluwadamilare, and a female banker, Atinuke Oluwadamilare, over issues of childlessness and battery.

Atinuke had sought the dissolution of her marriage to Oluwadamilare on the allegation he was always brutalising her.

She told the court, “My lord, if I had known that my marital journey with Ibitoye would be filled with storms, I would have retraced my steps. No sooner had I moved into his home as his wife than he started brutalising me. This is to the extent that he didn’t care about my physical, emotional and material needs.

“Most of the time, Ibitoye would lock the door and beat me until he was satisfied if I dare query why he didn’t come home early. He always returned home very, very late and drunk. Despite the fact that I would be the one to open the gate for him, he would still beat me, thereby exposing me to psychological torture. Ibitoye wouldn’t spend any time with me at home. Instead, he would go to his friends at the University of Ibadan to lavish his earnings and drink to stupor.”

The petitioner also accused the respondent of lethargy in addressing their childlessness of six years, and throwing her into debts over loans she acquired on his behalf, using her influence as a banker.

“He kept squandering the loans without repaying. This marriage can’t be by force, I can’t continue to stay in hopelessness,” Atinuke declared.

Oluwadamilare denied all Atinuke’s allegations against him and appealed to the court president not to dissolve the marriage.

“I have told Atinuke not to bother herself on the issue of childlessness because God is the giver. And though I am still owing her over N200,000, the matter is not exactly as she has painted it. She is merely making up issues out of nothing,” he said.

The respondent was, however, silent on Atinuke’s words that he was always beating her.

The court president held there was no need holding the marriage together since Atinuke had refused to be pacified. “In the interest of peaceful living, the union between Atinuke and Ibitoye has ceased to be. Ibitoye is advised to refund all outstanding debts to Atinuke and must allow her move out her belongings in his custody,” the arbitrator said.