I want to take care of my children, don’t want to die – woman tells court

A housewife,Bose Okeiye, on Tuesday prayed an
Idi-Ogungun Customary Court, Agodi-Ibadan,
Oyo State, to dissolve her 25-year-old marriage
to her estranged husband, Augustine Okeiye,
and safe her from an untimely death.
Okeiye had approached the court seeking
dissolution of the marriage which had produced
five children, on the grounds that her husband
was a threat to her life, not caring and
irresponsible.
She narrated how the defendant battered her to
the extent that she had to undergo surgery
while on admission in a hospital for two
months.
“I was on admission in a hospital for two
months and had to undergo surgery because of
my husband’s brutality and constant battering.
“He neither checked on me nor did he pay my
hospital bill throughout my period in the
hospital.
court
“Later, my family members asked why he
refused to visit me in hospital and his response
was that my father offended him.
“My lord, I am tired of him; please dissolve this
marriage before he kills me. I want to take care
of my five children in good health,” she
pleaded.
The defendant (Augustine) was, however, not in
court to defend the allegations leveled against
him despite three letters of summons from the
court.
The court’s president, Chief Mukaila Balogun,
in his ruling said, “having gone through
evidence presented by the complainant and
considering the disrespect of the defendant
toward the court, it is clear that there is no
more love between the couple.”
Balogun, therefore, dissolved the marriage and
ordered that the first two children should be in
the custody of the defendant while the
remaining three children should be with their
mother.
He also ordered the defendant to pay N9,000 to
his wife as monthly allowance for the upkeep of
the three children.