A 55-year-old businessman, Saliu Adesokan, on Thursday pleaded with an Igando Customary in Lagos to dissolve his 18-year-old marriage over wife’s maltreatment of her stepchildren.
He told the court that his wife, Jumoke, detested his children from another woman that she always handled them in a rough and cruel way.
“My wife always maltreats my children; she hates them to the extent that she only cooks for her children and refuses to give her stepchildren food.
“She promised to take care of them before I married her but she has refused to keep her vow.
“As a result of her frequent fighting and rivalry with them, I rented another apartment for my children but she still refused them to visit me.”
The petitioner described his wife as a proud and arrogant woman.
“My wife is so full of herself and arrogant, she does not respect me and she talks to my parents rudely.
“She does not wash my clothes, she will tell me to hire a house help, so I wash my clothes myself.”
He recalled that he sought the dissolution of the marriage in 2011 but because she was then pregnant, he withdrew the suit and also thought that she would change but she has remained adamant.
Saliu begged the court to separate them, that he was no longer interested in the union and that the love he had for her had faded.
Defending the allegations, Jumoke Adesokan, a 37-year-old trader, denied the allegation of maltreating her stepchildren.
She said that the children were too rude and troublesome and that one of them slapped her when she cautioned her.
“My husband’s daughter slapped me when I corrected her, she and her siblings always fight me.”
Jumoke said that it was her husband that asked her to stop washing his clothes.
She claimed that she used to cook for her husband and step children and that she always respected her husband and his parents.
The mother of two begged the court not to grant her husband’s wish as she was still in love with him.
The court president, Mr Ruphus Adeyeri adjourned the case till Jan.27, for judgement. (NAN)
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