My wife beats me on slight provocation, man tells court

A 55- year-old retired civil servant, Mr Emmanuel Osuya,
has asked an Igando Customary Court, Lagos, to dissolve
his 32-year-old marriage over alleged battering by his wife.
Osuya told the court on Wednesday that his wife, Abigeal
Osuya, 50, had turned him into a punching bag.
He said she beat him on any slight provocation. Osuya told
the court that his wife always threatened his life through
battery that he was afraid she may kill him one day.  “My
wife wants to kill me; she beat me almost every day with
dangerous weapons. On three occasions, she broke my leg,
preventing me from going out for days,’’ he said.
Osuya also accused his wife of turning his children against
him, thereby making them to hate him. “Abigeal succeeded
in creating enmity between me and my children, she tells
them false and damaging stories about me in order to hate
me. “So my children only care for her by sending her money
and other items every month, without extending their love to
me, they always ignore me as if I do not exist,’’ Osuya said.
The petitioner described his wife as a thief. He said that she
always stole his money, rendering him financially broke. “I
cannot keep money at home again because my wife will
steal it. “ She acted as if she is not always satisfied with the
money I give her in spite of the fact that my children always
send her money every month,’’ the petitioner said.
Osuya said that Abigeal always starved him of food. He
appealed to the court to dissolve the marriage, saying that “I
am no longer interested in the marriage, I don’t want to die
now, more so that I am out of love’’. Abigeal denied all the
allegations. The mother of five said that she had never
beaten her husband since the day she married him.
She said that it was her husband that always beat her. “It
was my husband that always beat me on any slight
provocation, I have never beaten him,” she said. The
respondent also said that she had never stolen her
husband’s money. Abigeal said that she used to cook for
her husband wherever he gave her money for food.
She asked the court not to grant her husband’s prayer. “I
am still in love with him,’’ she said. The Court President, Mr
Hakeem Oyekan, adjourned the case till April 30 for further
hearing.