Court dissolves 7-year-old marriage in Ekiti over constant beating

Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
|
An Ado-Ekiti Customary Court on Thursday dissolved a seven year-old marriage between one Kemi Williams and her husband Femi Williams, over constant beating and negligence.

Kemi, a food vendor in Ado-Ekiti and resident of Oke-Ila in the town, had filed the divorce suit against her estranged husband, a roadside mechanic in October 2019 on the grounds that her husband deserted her for over three years and constant beating. The 32- year-old petitioner, had since given her evidence before the court, but her husband was absent throughout the hearing of the suit.

Kemi had alleged her husband of always chasing her out of the house at any slight misunderstanding, lack of proper care for the family and the only child of the union.

“Both of us are not living in the same apartment, because my husband sometime in 2017 suddenly parked out of the house on the advice of his mother.

Shortly after, my mother- in-law came to remove his property from the house,” she explained.

The mother of one said barely two months after the removal of  his belongings her husband brought police to arrest her that she stole them.

She said, “The police took away some of my property like bed, cooking gas and television on my husband’s directive and since 2017 and up till now, my property were still in police custody.”

She pleaded with the court to separate them since his parents had declared they had no interest in her again.

The petitioner also prayed the court to order the respondent to take up the responsibility on his four-year-old son, Daniel Williams, while she asked for an order of the court to collect her property from the police custody.

Since the respondent had repeatedly shunned the court proceedings, it was assumed by the court that he had admitted the allegations leveled against him.

The President of the Court, Mrs Olayinka Akomolede, observed that the marriage had broken down irretrievably and consequently dissolved the union.