Wife seeks divorce, demands equal share of property

A 40-year-old housewife, Romoke Olayemi, on Monday filed a divorce suit at an Ikorodu Customary Court, alleging constant assault and battery by her spouse. Romoke accused Wale to whom she had been married for 22 years of assaulting and battering her anytime they had a misunderstanding. She asked the court to share into equal parts, the property they both acquired as a couple. “I deserted my husband two years ago because he is not responsible; it was during that time I heard he had sold our house which we jointly built.” The petitioner then tendered documentary evidence of her claim about the property which carries both her name and of her husband to the court. The 47-year-old respondent, a motorcyclist, confirmed selling the house to take care of himself and their four children who live with him. Wale told the court that he was not contesting the application for the dissolution of the marriage, saying the petitioner lives all her life in the church. “My wife doesn’t care for us in the house even before he deserted me; she lives all her life in the church and prayer mountain. “I am no longer interested in the union. Please separate us,” he said. The Court’s President, Mrs. Funmi Adeola, adjourned the hearing of the case to May 28 and ordered the embittered couple to wait for chamber discussion. Adeola, however, held that the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate on the issue of property raised by the petitioner. (NAN)]]>