A 37-year-old housewife, Sidikat Yusuf, has pleaded with an Ikorodu Customary Court to end her 18-year-old marriage to her husband, Abdulrasheed Yusuf, over his alleged infidelity and sexual escapades.
Sidikat also accused her husband of allegedly starving her and her children by his failure to provide for them.
She said Abdulrasheed had not been living up to his responsibilities as expected of a father and husband.
She said the result of his infidelity was the reason he had not been able to provide for his family.
The 37-year-old mother of four said for ten years, Abdulrasheed had failed in his conjugal duty and had not been giving her adequate
attention.
She added that within the ten years period, her husband allegedly slept with and impregnated another woman.
Sidikat told the court, “He has not been taking care of us. He has money but he does not consider his family. I tried to endure, but he did not change and in fact, the situation worsened as me and my children continued to depend on “concoction rice.”
“Yusuf, most of the times would eat bread and egg with sardine while the children and I would take gari or eba. My lord, right from the beginning of my stay with Yusuf as his wife, I started experiencing different kinds of bad treatment of which starvation was number one.
“Worse of all, Yusuf started having sexual intercourse with young girls in our area. One of those girls came to our house and started shouting that he impregnated her and he must accept the pregnancy. He is a disgrace to me and the children. My lord, I still managed to endure for 10 years and when I saw that things will not change, I moved out of his house. As if those were not enough, he could not pay for any of his children’s hospital bill, let alone
mine.”
But Yusuf strongly opposed the divorce suit filed against him by his wife.
“My lord, till the end of time, I am not parting ways with Sidikat. I am ready to welcome her back into my home any day, anytime,” Yusuf said.
In his ruling, the President of the court, Hamad Tirimisiyu, held that it was so bad for any husband to be so irresponsible to the extent of being unable to fend for his household.
He said that the deliberate failure of a husband to provide for his family was an act of wickedness.
Tirimisiyu then ruled, “Obviously, there is no true love between Sidikat and Yusuf because the husband cannot respond to the fundamental issues raised by his wife. The children shall determine who to stay with between Sidikat and Yusuf.
“In addition, Yusuf shall pay a monthly feeding allowance of N10, 000 for the upkeep of the four children until they are ready to stay with him.”
