A
41-year-old man, James Omale, yesterday, told an Igando Customary Court, Lagos,
that his wife must go to his village and swear an oath to proof her fidelity.
Omale, a self-employed, told the court while responding to a divorce suit of a
two-year-old marriage filed by his wife, Yetunde, said:
“My
wife knows that she is guilty of adultery, that is why she is afraid to go to
my village to swear. “She left her matrimonial home for a month to an unknown
destination. In my tradition, when a woman leaves her matrimonial home and
wants to come back, she must first go to our village to swear that no man has
slept with her.
“My wife left my house without my consent and
when she returned, she refused to go to my village instead, she rushed to court
to ask for divorce.” He described his wife as “an ingrate,” saying “I sponsored
Yetunde from her 100 level to final year. After her graduation, I lost my banking
job and she told me she was not interested in the marriage again.”
Wife’s
fears The petitioner, Yetunde, 29, had filed the suit seeking for the
dissolution of the marriage over alleged use of force by her husband to make
her swear an oath. She told the court that her husband asked her to go to his
village to make sacrifice.
According
to Yetunde, “my husband tells me to travel to his village in Benue State to
make sacrifice and swear to an oath to prove that no other man had slept with
me.
“He
tells me that he always sees a man making love to me in his dream. His elder
brother is an herbalist and his wife is currently mad, while his second
brother’s wife has been sick for years without solution. “They cast spell on
the wife of his other elder brother who is now a prostitute. I will never be a
victim of their evil plan.”
The
mother of one added: “My husband always leaves the house without my knowledge
and he will never care to call me.
Because
of his bad behaviour, I went to stay in my parent’s house.” The petitioner
urged the court to dissolve the marriage because she was no longer in love with
the husband. President of the court, Mr. Adegboyega Omilola, adjourned the case
to September 6 for judgment.
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