A forty two-year-old house wife, Regina Babatunde, has asked an Ogun State Customary Court sitting in Ake, Abeokuta, to dissolve her eight-year-old marriage to her husband, Pastor Ayinde Babatunde, over his alleged refusal to provide for her and their only child.
The complainant also said her husband was in the habit of beating her and accused him of keeping their only child in the custody of “two strange women.”
She explained further that when she attempted to take the child away from the two women, simply identified as Bose and Funmilayo, they threatened to beat her up.
Regina further accused the cleric of once sending her and her daughter out of his house for three months without bordering about their whereabouts.
She, therefore, prayed the court to order her estranged husband to return her child to her custody.
But the respondent, Pastor Ayinde, said that his wife’s claim of being denied feeding allowance was not true, adding that she had consistently made attempts to disgrace him in his ministerial work by accusing him of having concubines with children outside their
marriage.
The pastor, who is also a salesman, told the court that he decided to keep their only daughter in the custody of the two women who were his benefactors, who accommodated him when he went to work in Ibadan.
The President of the court, Chief Akande .O.O, adjourned further hearing on the matter to April 20.
