Funmilayo Okunade
Ado-Ekiti – An Ado-Ekiti Customary Court on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti dissolved an 8-year-old marriage between one Ayomide Matthew and her husband, Kola Mathew on the ground of Kola’s failure to cater for their only child.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ayomide, 45, a resident of 41, Odo-Ado Street in Ado-Ekiti, told the court that she met her husband 10 years ago and their marriage produced a child named Bosede Mathew.
She said her husband later left them about seven years ago to live elsewhere in Ado-Ekiti.
Ayomide said that since then, Kola had neither paid the child’s school fees nor provided foodstuff for them.
The mother of one said that she had been paying the rent of where they lived, adding that he only gave them 1,000 naira recently after she had dragged him before the court.
The petitioner urged the court to separate them because he had not cared for his daughter in the last seven years.
She also prayed the court to award her the custody of the child, who is now seven years old.
But the respondent, Kola, 47, admitted that they had been living apart for seven years and attributed it to the behaviour of his wife.
He said his wife refused to attend the burial ceremony of his father and when he visited her on the third day after the burial, he met another man in her apartment drinking and smoking.
He said his wife sells drinks and each time he visited her, he always met a men in her apartment.
He said that he told her to allow them put their child in a public school but she declined, alleging that Ayomide preferred an unknown school that does not issue receipt for payments made.
Kola said that this had been the bone of contention between them.
The respondent, however, consented to the dissolution of the marriage.
The President of the court, Mrs Olayinka Akomolede, observed that the marriage had broken down irretrievably and consequently dissolved it.
Akomolede awarded the custody of the child to Ayomide and also ordered Kola to pay 3,000 naira monthly as feeding allowance for Bosede.
She said that Kola should be responsible for the child’s education and granted him access to the child.