My husband said I infected him with AIDS, wife tells court
A Customary Court in Mapo, Ibadan, on
Friday dissolved the five year-old marriage between Mr Olumide Asogbon
and her wife, Idowu, a mother of two, over threat to her life.
Idowu had told the court that her
husband was threatening her life by shaving some portions of her hair
and using it for spiritual purposes.
The President of the court, Mr Ademola
Odunade, held that Idowu and Olumide should go their separate ways since
they had agreed to do that.
The court held that Idowu should take custody of the two children produced by the union.
It ordered Olumide to be providing a
monthly allowance of N4000 for the upkeep of each of the children and be
responsible for their education and other welfare.
“I want men and women intending to get
marry to learn from the mistakes that occurred between Idowu and Olumide
so as to guard against the same pitfalls,’’ he said.
Idowu had told the court that her
husband was threatening her life by shaving some portions of her hair
and using it for spiritual purposes.
She said, “My lord, after a series of
battering and psychological tormenting, Olumide invited me into his
living room one day and shaved off some strings of hair on my head with a
razor blade.
“As I struggled with him, he took a knife and wanted to slice off my head, but sympathizers saved my life from him.
“I survived it, but ever since that day, I have been experiencing very serious headache.
“Before that time, Olumide had in the
company of his other wife, ejected me from my matrimonial home even when
I was carrying a second pregnancy.
“He often complained that he never loved me and that he was not destined to be my husband.
“All my pleas to him fell on deaf ears
as he kept tarnishing my image around that I have infected him with
HIV/AIDS and gonorrhoea.”
The complainant said her husband wanted
her to swear by some sand he brought from somewhere if she was not
cheating on him, but that she insisted on swearing by the Bible.
She said, “Please, prevail on him to release my strings of hair so that I will be relieved of excruciating headache.”
The defendant told the court that he
used to have sex with only her, but when she infected him with
gonorrhoea he realised she was into prostitution and decided to end the
marriage.
He said, “My lord, I want everyone
present here to learn from my disobedience to the soothsayer who warned
me never to have anything to do with Idowu.
“The soothsayer said in her presence that we were never meant to be couple because Idowu would live to be a wayward wife.
“However, I wanted to repay Idowu for good because she really assisted me when I was in school by providing for my needs.
“Idowu herself wooed me and I did not reject her and I even sat for her SSCE so that she could have a school certificate.”
He further said that he “caught her in
adulterous mood” and when he could no longer bear her waywardness he
wanted to abandon her and travel outside the country.
He said, “I gave her some sand to swear whether she was into adultery or not, but she didn’t.”
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