3rd October, 2012
A 36-year-old Nigerian civil servant on Wednesday asked a Lagos customary court in suburban Igando to dissolve his two year-old marriage over the wife’s refusal to change her surname to his.
The petitioner, Johnson Munago, told the court that since he married Helen in 2010, she had not for once bore his name.
“She always tells me that she is comfortable with her father’s name and that she cannot change it,” Munago said.
He said that Helen was too demanding, adding that she insisted that he should rent her a flat and be giving her N10,000 weekly allowance, failing which she would go back to her parent’s house.
“When I tried to explain that I don’t have money to rent a flat, she opened up by telling me that she agreed to marry me just to solve her personal problem.
“She said that she was once diagnosed of a womb ailment at the hospital after examination and that the doctor advised her to get pregnant as soon as possible.
“She told me that it was over since she had gotten what she wanted.
“She packed out of our apartment on January 16, 2011 with my one and half-year-old son to an unknown destination,” he said.
He said that Helen went out and came back at will and kept late night.
“If I ask her where she was coming from at that time, she would tell me I had no right to know where she was coming from,” he said.
Munago said that Helen nicknamed him “foolish man’’.
He urged the court to dissolve the union as he no longer loved her.
Helen, the 35-year-old housewife, denied the allegations, saying that her husband was stingy and did not take care of her and her son.
“The money he used to drop for feeding is not always enough so I told him to increase it,” she said.
She told the court to grant her husband’s wish because she was no longer interested in the marriage.
The court president, Mr Adewale Eko, told the respondent to bring the only child of the union for sighting at the next hearing.
He adjourned the case to October 25 for further hearing.