A 55- year-old retired civil servant, Mr Emmanuel Osuya, has asked an
Igando Customary Court, Lagos, to dissolve his 32-year-old marriage over
alleged battering by his wife. Osuya told the court on Wednesday that
his wife, Abigeal Osuya, 50, had turned him into a punching bag.
He said she beat him on any slight provocation. Osuya told the court
that his wife always threatened his life through battery that he was
afraid she may kill him one day. “My wife wants to kill me; she beat me
almost every day with dangerous weapons. On three occasions, she broke
my leg, preventing me from going out for days,’’ he said.
Osuya also accused his wife of turning his children
against him, thereby making them to hate him. “Abigeal succeeded in
creating enmity between me and my children, she tells them false and
damaging stories about me in order to hate me. “So my children only care
for her by sending her money and other items every month, without
extending their love to me, they always ignore me as if I do not
exist,’’ Osuya said.
The petitioner described his wife as a thief. He said that she always
stole his money, rendering him financially broke. “I cannot keep money
at home again because my wife will steal it. “ She acted as if she is
not always satisfied with the money I give her in spite of the fact that
my children always send her money every month,’’ the petitioner said.
Osuya said that Abigeal always starved him of food. He appealed to the
court to dissolve the marriage, saying that “I am no longer interested
in the marriage, I don’t want to die now, more so that I am out of
love’’. Abigeal denied all the allegations. The mother of five said that
she had never beaten her husband since the day she married him.
She said that it was her husband that always beat her. “It was my
husband that always beat me on any slight provocation, I have never
beaten him,” she said. The respondent also said that she had never
stolen her husband’s money. Abigeal said that she used to cook for her
husband wherever he gave her money for food.
She asked the court not to grant her husband’s prayer. “I am still in
love with him,’’ she said. The Court President, Mr Hakeem Oyekan,
adjourned the case till April 30 for further hearing.
