Groundnut Seller Seeks Divorce

A groundnut seller, Mrs. Helen Okpara, 37, has dragged her husband, Mr. John Gabriel Okpara, 40,a factory worker before the Agege Grade’A’Customary Court, Lagos, SouthwestNigeria, seeking the dissolution of her 14-year old marriage.

In her application before the court, she said she was seeking divorce because of irreconciliable differences.

She wrote: ”I was already married to someone else before and had four kids for him which he was aware of. I got married to him according to tradition and he paid N1,000 as my dowry and brought kegs of palm wine to my kindred.

“While with him, I gave birth to two kids, Edwin, 11 and Bridget, 9. We were living together as a family with my four kids from my first marriage when he told me to send them away and that he does not want to take care of children that doesn’t belong to him.

” He was always threatening me and he beats me constantly over this. When the beatings got too much, I ran to my friend’s place to sleep at 3.a.m. one day.”

She claimed further that her husband stopped his younger brother from coming to their home on claims that he was having sex with her.

“I can no longer sleep in the house which I rented with my money. He will stay at the entrance with a whip and drive me away. I am fed up with him. Many times, he will come to collect money from me after we might have quarreled. He will eat and start complaining that he had stomach ache. I have warned him not to eat my food again because he was accusing me of trying to poison him,” she added.

The respondent denied the allegations but agreed to the dissolution of the marriage.

He disclosed that he did not threaten to kill his wife, adding that one day he caught his wife walking hand-in-hand with his friend and accused her of infidelity.

After listening to the parties, the court president, Mr. E.B. Shokunle adjourned the matter till 20 April, 2011 for judgment.

—Ibrahim Bakare