Alleged Infidelity: Husband insists wife must go to village to swear

By Omotola OLUSEGUN, Lagos

A 41-year-old man, James Omale has told an Igando Customary Court, Lagos that his wife must go to his village and swear to proof her innocence of alleged infidelity. Omale, a self employed, told the court while responding to a divorce suit of a two-year-old marriage, filed by his wife, Yetunde, “My wife knows that she is guilty of adultery that is why she is afraid to go to my village to swear.” “She left her matrimonial home for a month to unknown destination. “In my tradition, when a woman leaves her matrimonial home and wants to come back, she must first go to our village to swear that no man has slept with her. “My wife left my house without my consent and when she returned, she refused to go to my village instead, she rushed to court to ask for divorce,’’ he said. He described his wife as “an ingrate’’ saying “I sponsored Yetunde from her 100 level to final year.” “After her graduation, I lost my banking job and she told me she was not interested in the marriage again’’, she explained. The petitioner, Yetunde, 29, had filed the suit seeking for the
dissolution of the marriage over alleged force by her husband to make her swear an oath. She told the court that her husband, asked her to go to his village to make sacrifice. “My husband tells me to travel to his village in Benue state to make sacrifice and swear to an oath if a man sleeps with me. “He tells me that he always see a man making love to me in his dream. “His elder brother is an herbalist and his wife is currently running mad, while his second brother’s wife has been sick for years without solution. “They cast spell on the wife of his other elder brother who is now a
prostitute. I will never be a victim of their evil plan’’ she said. The mother of one alleged that her husband “goes out and comes back at will. “My husband always leaves the house without my knowledge and he will never care to call me. “Because of his bad behaviour, I went to stay in my parent’s house,’’ she said. The petitioner urged the court to dissolve the marriage because she was no longer in love with the husband. In his ruling, the president of the court, Mr Adegboyega Omilola adjourned the case to Sept. 6 for judgment.