You Can't Divorce Me Unless You Return Me Back to the Way You Met Me - Embattled Wife Tells Husband in Court

A 35- year old woman, Basirat Alatise, caused a mild drama at the Agboyi/Ketu cus­tomary court when she blatantly refused the court to dissolve her marriage, saying that the only condition for accepting divorce is if the husband could restore her to the state he met her so that she could be attractive to a man if she is willing to get married again.

 

According to Authority, the woman's 48-year-old husband, Morufu Alatise had earlier pe­titioned the court to dissolve the three-year-old marriage on the grounds that there is no more love as well as destruction of his property, constant embar­rassment in public and show of wickedness.

 

Giving his testimony, Mr Morufu said that he met his wife, Basirat at a carnival and he liked her and decid­ed to marry her; he met the mum who gave her approval and they got married. 

 

Accord­ing to him, he told the wife that he has a woman who has given birth for him earlier and asked if she was okay with it and the wife accepted. However, it hap­pened that the lady who gave birth for him started coming to visit and whenever the wife sees the woman, she gets vio­lent and embarrasses him in public to the point of having him arrested him and put in a cell.

 

He then urged the court to dissolve the marriage and ask the wife what he did that would warrant her arresting him all the time.

 

When the court asked the wife to explain why she kept arrest­ing the husband, and she nar­rated that, “When I met my husband, he never told me he was married. My relatives though were asking me how a man in his forties would not be married; that it is better we in­vestigate and know why he is not yet married all these years. It was then that we discovered that he already has a wife and when I confronted him, he said that the wife he married died. After a while we discovered it was a lie, that the wife is alive and I became friends with her.

 

“After a while, we then dis­covered that he now has an­other girlfriend he was secret­ly seeing and the lady comes to his office which is in our house to come visit him. It was very embarrassing for me and I con­fronted him and he told the lady to beat me up. We fought and the lady tore my clothes and I immediately went to report at the police station and he was ar­rested and put in cell because he refused to produce the lady who fought me but I eventual­ly bailed him.

“When it was time for me to give birth, I went to the hospital and we did scan and found out that I will have twins and after he heard that, he disappeared. I called him, looked for him eve­rywhere but couldn’t find him and my mother and my rela­tives decided to support me. I gave birth to the twins; one of the babies was sickly and the baby died because we didn’t have money to buy the drugs as at the time the baby needed to take the drugs. He still didn’t show up or show any remorse that we lost a child. On the day of the naming ceremony, he came and stood like a stranger. He didn’t pay the hospital bill; he didn’t give any money for the naming ceremony.

“I still forgave him but he still brings the new girlfriend to his office which my father gave him. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I usually harass him so that he would know that I am not happy with his attitude and he still continued and had the au­dacity to say he wants divorce. I will never accept any divorce except he has the power to take me back to the position he met me before I got pregnant; return all the money I have spent, oth­erwise, this our marriage is un­til death do us part.”

In all the narration, the hus­band did not counter anything the wife said, but was quiet with his head bowed.

 

O. Adebiyi who stood in for the president of the court said that it was clear who is hurt­ing and he called the parties to his chambers and adjourned the case to February 3, 2016 for continuation of hearing.