A 47-year-old businessman, Rufus Otegbola, yesterday told an Igando Customary Court, Lagos, that his wife, Funmilayo, is a serial divorcee. Rufus, who urged the court to dissolve his 13-year-old marriage to Funmilayo for alleged adulterous acts, told the court that he was the fifth husband of the respondent.
He said: “My wife is adulterous and a serial divorcee. She had married and divorced four husbands before I married her.
“Funmilayo is diabolical and fetish. She always comes home with charms and my fear is that she may kill me one day if I do not end the marriage.”
Rufus, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that his wife packed out of their matrimonial home without his consent.
He added: “My parent-in-law and my wife’s siblings came to my house to pack my wife’s property without my permission.”
Rufus urged the court to end the marriage as he was no longer in love with her.
In her response, Funmilayo, 42, and a businesswoman, said that her husband was an unrepentant polygamist.
She said: “My husband deceived me. He did not tell me that he had three wives before marrying me. “He impregnated me and hurried me into his house without legal marriage. “I discovered that he already had three wives living with him and there was nothing I could do since I was pregnant, I had to stay.”
Funmilayo said that Rufus had also turned her into a punching bag.
She added: “My husband beats me all time and even when I was pregnant, he beats the hell out of me; I fell into labour immediately, forcing the delivery of the baby. “As a result of the frequent beating, on May 9, 2016, I packed my belongings from his house and moved to my parents’ house.”
Funmilayo also described Rufus as an ungrateful person.
She said: “When he lost his job, I was the one feeding him with his wives and their children and I was also paying the school fees of our children and my step children.”
The mother of four, however, consented to the dissolution of the marriage, saying “I am also fed up with the union”.
In his judgement, President of the court, Mr. Akin Akinniyi, noted that the estranged couple were tired of the marriage as all efforts to reconcile them had failed.
He said: “Since both parties consented to the dissolution of their marriage, this court has no choice than to dissolve the marriage.
“The court pronounced the marriage between Mr. Rufus Otegbola and Mrs. Funmilayo Otegbola dissolved today, both parties henceforth ceased to be husband and wife. “Both are free to go their separate ways without any hindrance and molestation.
