My wife threatens to dismember my body, man tells court

A 53-year-old man, Fatai Sakariyau, has asked a customary court sitting in Agege, Lagos, to end his marriage with his wife, Rukayat, over threats by her to kill him.
Sakariyau told the court that his wife, who was in the habit of threatening to sever any part of his body whenever they had any misunderstanding, confessed that she once added poison to his food.
He explained that since he started experiencing the threats, he rarely ate her food, alleging that his wife wanted to compel him to eat from the meal she had laced with poison, but he refused to eat it.
Sakariyau said, “I later found out that the food was poisoned because I refused to eat it. It turned black, where it was thrown when it got spoilt. Apart from that, she is fond of quarrelling with me. She does not respect me. On many occasions, she had threatened to cut off any part of my body if I provoked her beyond measure.
“She also fights with our neighbours every time. I can no longer endure her bad behaviour. I am so scared of my wife because she can do and undo. I cannot continue to be with a woman that will cut short my life; I am not safe with her. She is fetish as she usually visits herbalists.”
However, the respondent, Rukayat, 41, pleaded with the court to beg her husband not to divorce her, promising that she would do away with her bad ways.
She said that she still loved her husband and that she had no intention of leaving him.
“I still want us to be together. He is my love and my life. I promise to be a good wife and mother,’’ she pleaded.
The President of the court, Lamidi Kolawole, advised the couple to give peace a chance and settle their differences amicably.