A block dealer, Rasheed Abowaba has dragged his estranged wife, Sherifat Abowaba, before a Customary Court sitting in Ake, Abeokuta, Ogun State, for allegedly refusing to share the same bed with him for two years.
Rasheed said in suit number CV/ 559/2018 that his wife of 28 years abandoned their matrimonial bed and brought in a separate bed with which she was sleeping in their children’s room for two years.
The father of four said that his wife started misbehaving and eventually abandoned their matrimonial bed for him alone after he refused to give her part of the proceed from his family’s property, claiming that he had earlier explained to her what he wanted to expend the money on.
The husband, who prayed the court to dissolve their marriage, said that he had since been cooking and washing his own clothes and plates for two years, inspite of the fact that he lived under the same roof with his wife.
He maintained his wife must have made up her mind to divorce him because of her attitude in the past two years as she stopped caring for him.
Rasheed said that he decided to move out of his house and marry another woman, when he could no longer tolerate the nonchalant attitude of his wife.
He, therefore, asked the court to order his wife to pack her belongings out of his personal property since they stopped living together as married couple in the past four years.
Rasheed sought to divorce his wife on the grounds of frequent fighting, provocation, trouble making and lack of care, accused his wife of threatening to disown any of their four male children who tried to move closer to him.
He said, “My wife is troublesome. I abandoned her four years ago. My wife is troublesome and she should go to the house she built by herself. She asked my children not to call me or come to me. She said she will disown any child that comes to me.
“She abandoned our matrimonial bed and left my room to sleep in her children’s room with the new bed she bought herself. She abandoned my room while we were still living together under the same roof. I bought my pots and stove and I even washed my clothes for two years before I packed out of my own house.”
In her defense, Sherifat said that she abandoned their matrimonial bed because he refused to give him part of the proceeds realised from his family property.
She claimed that she had suffered so much with her husband that she never expected him not to give her part of the money he got from the property.
She alleged that her husband was fond of beating her whenever any argument ensued between them, adding that her husband left the responsibility of the children to her alone in the past four years.
The woman, who said she was ready for divorce, said that he left her and the children and eloped with another woman.
“My husband collected some money on his family property and refused to give me part of it. He abandoned me and my children for four years and went to live with another woman. If he wants to divorce me, I am ready and I won’t beg him,” she said.
The President of the court Chief Akande. O.O, granted Rasheed’s prayers and dissolved the marriage between the couple
