A 42-year-old man, Mr. John Ayoade, has appealed to an Alimosho Customary Court, sitting at Iyana Ipaja, Lagos State, to dissolve his five-year-old marriage to Deborah Oriade, over her brutality.
Ayoade told the court that his wife had beaten him 10 times, at different occasions in public. According to him, at one of those occasions, his wife attacked his manhood until it started bleeding.
She later poured pepper on it. He further alleged that his wife was fetish. His words: “I didn’t marry her legally. In fact, I’m married. I have my first wife. Deborah and I were only dating.
We met at the Sawmill where we both sell building materials. She always comes to my shop to complain to me about her former husband. It was in that process I developed interest in her.”
He said two years into their dating, Deborah came to tell him that she was pregnant. He said he rejected the pregnancy because before they started having sex, he had already told her that he didn’t want any kid, especially not out of wedlock.
He added: “Moreover, I still love my legal wife.” He further said: “When Deborah delivered the baby, she named him Emmanuel. I was not aware. After the naming ceremony, she started behaving strangely.
Some of my friends advise me to report the matter at the palace of Elegbeda, where I was asked to cater for the upkeep of the baby. I have been doing that since last year.”
Ayoade explained that after he heeded the commands of Elegbeda and started doing everything for the baby, Deborah still wasn’t satisfied.He said: “One fateful day, she came to my house and pounced on my house wife. She beat her mercilessly.
The matter was transferred to the State Criminal Investigative Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, for threatening the life of my family member. “Since I met her, I have not known peace. If I had known that is the kind of woman she is, I wouldn’t have approached her. I have developed hypertension since we started this clash.
Even at my matrimonial home, I don’t have peace. I can’t concentrate anymore on my business. It was after I met her I knew she is from Ilesha. I have been advice by my father not to marry any woman from that part of the country.” Deborah, a mother of three, denied every allegation leveled against her by Ayoade. She said: “I love him. I don’t want to leave him because he is the father of my son.
He is the one who came to file for divorce in the court. If not because of the problem I had with my former husband, I wouldn’t have come across him. I had two children in my former marriage.
When the problem between me and my former husband was still raging, I always confided in Ayoade. It was in the process that we fell in love and got married. The marriage produced a baby boy.”
According to her, before the arrival of the baby boy, she has had two abortions for Ayoade. “My problem with him is that he doesn’t want to recognize my son as one of his children.
This is why I went to his house and introduced myself to his wife. I didn’t fight her,” said Deborah. The President of the court, Alhaja S.O Mumini, told the couple that because the rightful father of the baby was in doubt, a DNA test will be conducted to know the real father. The case was adjourned to March 15, 2016.
