11-year-Old Marriage Dissolved For Lack of Care

An Ado-Ekiti Customary Court on Tuesday dissolved the 11-year-old marriage between Mr Eche Azubuke and his wife, Felicia.
The case was slated for judgment on Tuesday by the court’s president, Mr Joseph Ogunsemi, after hearing from both parties in February.
Felicia, 31, sought the divorce for alleged battery and lack of care for her and the children by the husband.

She told the court that her husband was always beating her because of another woman whom he secretly married.
The mother of three said her husband did not tell her that he had married before approach her for marriage.
She said, “The woman suddenly came one day with her children to start living with us.”
She said the husband also started behaving in a funny way and stopped providing money for the upkeep of the children.
The petitioner, therefore, urged the court to dissolve the marriage and award custody of the children to her.
She alleged that her husband once threatened to take the children from her and send them to his village.
Eche, 40, however, denied the allegations, insisting that he was adequately taking care of the family.
He admitted that he once beat her because she was cheating on him, adding that he once caught her with another man.
The court’s president, Mr Ogunsemi Joseph, in his judgment, said the marriage had broken down beyond reconciliation, and therefore dissolved the union.
He awarded the custody of two of the three children to the husband and the third child to the wife, and directed Eche to be responsible for the payment of the children’s school fees.
Ogunsemi also ordered the husband to be paying N3,500 as monthly allowance to the last child, adding that both parents should have free access to the children.