A 67-year-old beneficiary, Asimiyu Olayinka, has begged the Alakuko Customary Court in Lagos yesterday to break up his 26-year-old marriage to his wife Fatimo, who he blamed for infidelity. The last time I laid down with my wife was the last time my masculinity worked. On that day, my wife provided for me an uncommon treatment when I came back from work which drove us to our room. Shockingly, amid lovemaking, I had an unpleasant assault. I tumbled from the quaint little inn on my body. I thought I was going to pass on the grounds that it was similar to magun (appeal) was set on me. As I talk, its been three years since I laid down with any lady. I am feeble."
He said: “I married her solely because my second wife was troublesome. I wasn’t even bothered she had two sons from her previous marriages because when I met her, she was the best woman in the world. She took care of the seven children I had from my previous marriages. The problem started when I retired in 2005. She stopped listening to me likewise our children. Our first daughter dropped out of secondary school because I asked her to repeat a class and her mother was not in support.
“My wife is fond of entertaining men at the frontage of our house which I am strongly against. At my age, I still fetch water and wash my clothes. I never believed she could engage in extra marital sex until I saw her walk out from a hotel with a co-landlord in our neighbourhood. She was shocked to see me but I greeted her. It’s been one year since I stopped asking about her movement. It is painful I can’t do anything as a man. I don’t even know the reason she left her previous marriages. There cann’t be peace in our home except we part ways.”
Mrs Olayinka, a 54-year-old food vendor, described her husband as violent.
She said: “Since we got married, I have never achieved anything. He never bought me a wrapper but he complains each time I am in a new outfit. I am surprised he said he is impotent because the last time we slept with each other was February 2014. The night he fell from the bed and defecated, he was drunk. I washed his faeces in the midnight. He didn’t see me in a hotel with another man. I really don’t know why he is saying all this.
“I was even ashamed when he said he caught me in a hotel with another man in the presence of our children. My husband is violent. Whenever he is ready to sleep with me, he beats me with a towel. He is the landlord of the house we live but he doesn’t cater for our children’s upkeep. There was a time he disconnected the light of the room I sleep for a year. It was until my first son invited four elderly men to plead with him that he reconnected it. He gives me N600 to prepare soup for myself and the 10 children. We still had issues before we came to court. I will say he was smart enough to bring our case to court because I am also fed up. I just want N200, 000 compensation from him and I want him to take responsibilities of our last daughter’s education.”
Their first son, Abdul’razaq, who was in court said: “My father is always drunk. This issue has been on for over 10 years. There was a time my father told me my mother was committing adultery; I had to monitor her movement for two days but there was no evidence. There is unity among the children but our parents keep fighting. I will be glad if the court reconciles them because this is the time our father needs care.”
The marriage produced three children.
The court’s president, Chief Awos Awosola, gave Olayinka two days to re-consider a divorce. He ordered him to rent an apartment for his wife and to give her N350, 000 as compensation. The case continues tomorrow.