Ex-Army man asks court for divorce due to his wife’s bad temper

A retired military officer, Thomas Olawaye has dragged his wife to a Mapo Grade ‘A’ Customary Court in Ibadan because he is tired of the marriage.

He begged the court on Monday, 23rd of April 2024, to grant his request to divorce his wife, Victoria, 52, due to her ill temper.

Olawaye, a father of five, told the court that in spite of several interventions by relatives to calm his wife, she refused to change her bad ways.

“My lord, for you to know how terrible Victoria had been, I stopped performing my duties as a husband 22 years before she eventually left my home in 2021. She grabs my private parts whenever we have an argument.

Victoria doesn’t mind her business in the neighbourhood we lived in. She has no good words for me. She curses and has even destroyed our children’s lives with curses,” he said.

The applicant while tendering a knife as an exhibit, alleged that his estranged wife attempted to stab him with the knife in 2023.

The respondent was however, to defend herself. The bailiff said he served hearing notices on the respondent many times.

Delivering judgment, the court’s President, Mrs S.M. Akintayo held that there was no marriage to be dissolved between Olawaye and Victoria in the first place.

Akintayo said that this was because the petitioner did not pay any bride price and did not perform essential traditional rites required.

”The fact that a man and a woman are living together and even bearing children together does not mean that they are married, their togetherness is a mere cohabitation,” she said.