Wife seeks divorce over alleged threat to life

(Nigeria) A 44-year-old mother of three, Mrs Omolara Achoyamen, 44, on Thursday pleaded with an Igando Customary Court in Lagos to dissolve her 14-year-old marriage, alleging  threat to her life. Achoyamen, who is also a businesswoman, told the court that her husband, Solomon Achoyamen, was always waking up at 2:00 a.m. to break a coconut and make incantations, mentioning her name and wishing she should die. "At  2:00 a.m. my husband will break a coconut and will be shouting my name to the coconut that I should die. "Sometimes, he will bring out a cutlass threatening to kill me, claiming that I was responsible for his misfortune.  "Solomon always forced me into love making and after he is through with me , he will spit on me, telling me that he is only managing me, that I am not his wife," she said. The petitioner described her husband as an ingrate, saying that  she sponsored him through the university with the money she would have used to further her own education.  "My sister always sent me money from abroad for my studies, but I used the money to train my husband because I already have a good business that I did not want to abandon. "On  the day of his convocation, he did not inform me; instead,  he invited his relatives from the village. "I only saw the pictures when I went to visit one of his brothers," she said. She complained further that since she married her husband, she had been the one taking care of the family because he was unemployed . She begged the court to dissolve the marriage, that she was no longer interested in the relationship. In his defence, the respondent, Solomon confirmed that she was unemployed, and that he was only using the coconut to pray. ‘’I always pray to God with the coconut that anyone-- either my wife, my family or in-law-- who is against my progress, should fall down and die," he said. He said that it was not his wife that trained him through university, but that she only supported him financially. Solomon said that when he had a job, he cared for his children, but when he lost his job he could no longer fend for the  family. He consented to the dissolution of the marriage in that his estranged wife was proud and  unpleasant . The  president of the court,  Mr R.I. Adeyeri, adjourned the case to September 25 for judgement.