My wife is disrespectful, humiliates me in public, man tells court

A cleric, Raifu Tirimisiyu, has told a Mapo Grade A Customary Court in Ibadan to grant him divorce from his estranged wife, Blessing, on the grounds that she is disrespectful and humiliates him publicly.

“Blessing has no regard for me. She comes to my place of work to challenge me and subject me to public embarrassment for no reason.

“I have no peace in my home due to her troublesome character,” Tirimisiyu said.

He pleaded with the court to give him custody of their child.

Blessing was nowhere to be found when she was to open her defence, although she was around when the case began.

The court’s bailiff said that he served several hearing notices on her but that she declined to appear.

Delivering judgement, the court’s president, Mrs. S.M. Akintayo, said that there was nothing to be dissolved between Tirimisiyu and Blessing because there was no valid marriage between them in the first place due to the absence of payment of the bride price.

Akintayo stated that the fact that a man and a woman were living and having children together did not mean that they were married.

She ordered themto go their separate ways since the petitioner was no longer interested in the relationship.

The President of the Court granted the order restraining the respondent from harassing, threatening, disturbing, and interfering in the private life of the petitioner henceforth.

Akintayo awarded custody of the child to Blessing because the child needs motherly care.