Woman seeks divorce over sex starvation

(Nigeria) A Sales Manager, Mrs Okome Obasare, 41, on Wednesday pleaded with an Igando Customary Court in Lagos to terminate her marriage because her husband had denied her sex for three years.

Okome, a mother of three, who accused her husband of infidelity, said that her husband had also barred her from entering his room.

"My husband is dating our church woman leader and he always brings her home to pass the night. When he chased me out of his house in 2013, that very day the woman packed in," the estranged woman said.

"After evicting me from the house, he told my children that I was dead that they will never see me again," she said.

The petitioner said she had lost two pregnancies through constant beating by her husband.

She told the court that her husband with whom she had three children in their 14-year-old marriage was a wife-beater.

"My husband always beat me with wire and on two occasions, I bleed and lost my pregnancy and after that he gave me money for Dilation and Curettage. He stops me from working and locks me inside the house and he will not allow me to go out, he beats me anytime he sees me outside or a visitor comes to visit me."

Obasare pleaded with court to end the marriage, saying she was no longer interested and that the court should order her husband to always grant her access to their children.

But her husband, Ese, 59, a civil servant, denied all the allegations.

He said that his wife did not lose any pregnancy.

"My wife did not lose any pregnancy; she always gives birth to a baby anytime she is pregnant."

Ese said that his wife always flouted his orders and that he could not take that as head of the family.

"My wife always disobeys my orders, she is disrespectful, she goes out at will and come back at will," he said.

The respondent said that he did not chase his wife out of his house but that she left on her own.

He told court to grant his wife's divorce wish, saying that he too was no longer interested in the union.

The President of the court, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, after listening to the estranged couple, adjourned the case till May 24 for judgment.