Justice S. T. Abdulqadri sitting at a Kwara state High Court, Ilorin on Thursday dissolved a 28-year-old marriage between a Marine Engineer, Mr. Adegbenga Dada and his 46 year old, wife, Roseline Dada over allegations of adultery.
52 year old Olugbenga had dragged his wife to Court over allegations of uncontrolled adultery by her numerous man friends which his wife failed to see as a wrong thing for a decent housewife to engage in.
In suit number KWS/309/2018 filed before the Court, the engineer alleged that his wife became promiscuous to the extent that she refused to perform her domestic duties and even involved their female children by sending them on errands to collect money from her man friends.
Adegbenga who said that he and his wife hailed from Kwara state but resident in Lagos alleged that “Roseline is promiscuous, uncaring, temperamental, hostile, and
has behaved in such a way that he (the Petitioner) could not reasonably live with her.
“The Respondent goes out and returns home at will sometimes up to 12:30a.m in the night.
“The Respondent usually indulge in extra marital affairs
and always chat with man friends through her facebook,
Badoo, Whatsapp adding sometimes ago a woman known as Mrs. Kasumu, wife to one of her man friends (name witheld) called me on phone to inform me of the havoc that my wife has wrecked on her family through her
extra marital affairs with her husband.”
She continued, Mrs Kasumu said that her husband (name witheld) out of desire to still maintain his marriage
not withstanding the discovery of this unholy/promiscuous alliance with Roseline, (my wife) narrated on the phone, series of shameful,
immoral act that he (my husband) has been doing with my wife (the Respondent) in her presence and to her hearing (his wife.)”
Olugbenga further alleged that his wife also engaged in extra marital relationship with the following three people; (names witheld) who reside in Ilorin and Lagos respectively adding that “the Respondent always goes to bar beach every weekend with man friend and travels with man friend at any time without my knowledge, consent and notification.”
The Petitioner also said that his wife packed out of the living room to guest room since the last 3 years and she is yet to be back till date.
“My wife before packing to the guest room would insist that unless i issued cheque for substantial amount would not succumb to my sexual advances. Any failure to issue cheque will result in total denial.
“The Respondent is in the habit of sending her children especially the grown up daughters to her man friends to deliver amorous messages and collect money for her.”
The petitioner who is a prince of Eruku in Ekiti local government area of Kwara state prayed the court to dissolve the marriage adding that “the marriage has broken down because my wife and I are no longer able to sit down together to discuss about our lives and that of our children.”
He also prayed the court to grant him the custody of the three children produced by the union.
Roseline in her response denied the allegations of being promiscuous and staying longer outside alleging that her husband was the one that involved in adultery.
She however said that she was not opposed to the dissolution of the marriage but prayed the court to grant her part ownership of their Lagos building which she said was a joint project executed by her and the petitioner.
During the trial, the petitioner through his counsel, Mr. Josiah Adebayo tendered video clips of the nude picture of the respondent with her man friends which he said that Olugbenga retrieved from his wife’s phone.
The Counsel told the Court that the petitioner did not approach the court to ridicule the respondent but decided to give further pieces of evidence against her when she allegedly started to twist the matter to favour herself.
“Yes, it was a sad thing because many of us hold dearly to issue relating to marriage because that’s the fabric or the nucleus of the society. Mr. Dada alleged that she had behaved in a way that he cannot reasonably be expected to live with her. The major aspect of the behaviour is adultery with so many people.
“We came to court without the intention to open can of worms but just to testify and give incidences of how the allegations of adultery were committed.
But when she came to court and started telling lies that it was the petitioner and not her that was committing adultery, we then confronted her with other pieces of evidence we have, such as the nude pictures she had sent to one of her man friends, one Mr. Kasumu, her picture and that of Mr. Kasumu.
She also said that she jointly owned a Lagos residential property with the petitioner which was a blatant lie.
Delivering her judgement, Justice Abdulqadri granted the dissolution of the marriage adding that she found the evidence presented before the Court on the allegations of adultery against the respondent to be true.
She held that the respondent, Mrs. Dada had no joint ownership of a Lagos state residential property with the petitioner.
The court did not however grant the custody of the three children of the 28:years old marriage to any of the parties, as she held that the children are adults who are above 20 years of age.
“The children are adults of above 20 years of age and there is no reason to grant custody to any of the parties as they are old enough to decide where they want to leave”, the judge said.
