Romance > Septuagenarian alleges battery bywife, wants divorceSeptuagenarian alleges battery by wife, wantsdivorce

A 75-year-old man, Fashola Fakorede, on
Thursday urged a Customary Court, in the
Lagos suburb of Igando, to dissolve his
marriage to his wife, Funke, 49, for allegedly
beating him.
Fakorede told the Nigerian customary court
that his wife had turned him into a punching
bag and also inflicted injuries over his body.
“My wife wants to kill me. She beats me every
day. I don’t want to die now, save my life. My
wife always beats me if I asked of food or
anything. She has turned it to a routine affair,
all the scars on my body are as a result of her
battery on me,’’ he said.
Fakorede said his wife no longer takes care of
him, adding, “she goes out and returns home
at will without seeking my permission. She can
go out for days and if I queried her, she will
hit me with any dangerous weapon she can
lay her hand on at that moment.
Illustration: A woman beating her husband.
“And my daughter is also taking her footstep,
she brings home different men and my wife
will not query her. So, I sent her away from my
house,’’ he said.
He urged the court to dissolve the union,
saying that he was no longer in love with her
and was tired of the regular battery, which had
led to his ill-health.
“I am tired of the constant beating, I am afraid
this woman will kill me one day. I am not
ready to die now,’’ he pleaded.
Funke, a trader, denied the allegations, saying
that she did not beat her husband and has
always taken good care of him and respected
him.
The mother of three, however, accused her
husband of denying the children the right to
go to school.
“My husband is unable to send any of his
three children to secondary school. My
husband is not responsible. None of our
children went to secondary school, all of them
stopped schooling at primary school,” she
said.
She said her husband had disowned his
daughter, and urged the court not to grant his
wish as she still loved him.
“I have no anywhere to go as no man will
want to marry me at my age,’’ ‘
The judge, Mr R. I. Adeyeri, adjourned the case
till 25 November for further hearing.