I Don't want to Die, My husband is not A Real Man – Wife Cries

A 45-year-old businesswoman, Anna Oshomogbe, has asked an Igando Customary Court in Lagos to dissolve her marriage with Edmund because his family controls her home. She told the court that Edmund with whom she had two children in their 18-year-old marriage could not make decisions on his own.

"My husband’s mother and brothers are controlling our home. If we discuss anything, my husband will first go to his family to consult with them, what they say will be my husband’s final decision. I am just like a maid, my decision is always rejected. In fact, I don’t have a say in my matrimonial home."

She continued, “My husband always spends his salary with his brothers at a beer parlour and after drinking to stupor, he will be staggering and falling into the gutter. He urinates and messes up everywhere in our flat whenever he is drunk and most times, he beats me without reason,” she said.

Anna accused her husband, who has failed to appear in court after receiving several summons, of being an irresponsible husband and father. “When my daughter fainted when she had fever, I called my husband to come home so that we could take her to the hospital, he said that he was in a beer joint and that he could not come. 

“He does not sleep at home most times as he stays with his brothers or mother. He always tells me that nothing can separate him and his family. I pay the house rent and the children’s school fees because my husband refused to pay,” she said. 

Anna claimed that her husband asked her to go to his village for spiritual cleansing. “My husband is forcing me to go to his village for cleansing; I don’t just understand what the cleansing is all about. Two of my husband’s elder brothers’ wives had gone to the village for cleansing, they died... after returning to Lagos. I am afraid because I don’t want to die now,” she said.

The wife presented a text message sent to her by her husband that she should go to his village for cleansing and that he would not appear in court for any dissolution.

The court president, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, ordered the court bailiff to serve the husband again and thus adjourned the case to June 28 for possible mediation.