A 35 -year-old businesswoman, Mrs. Bilikisu Azeez, has asked an Igando Customary Court in the Lagos suburb to dissolve her five-year-old marriage over sex starvation.
Bilikisu claimed on Monday that her husband, Olushesi, starved her of sex for the past two years, making her fall ill frequently.
“My husband has been starving me of sex. Since he married his youngest wife, he has turned me into an abandoned property.
“I have been falling sick, in and out of hospital. In my last visit to the hospital, I was told that my frequent sickness was because I have not had sex for a long time.
“Please court, divorce the union so that I can move on with my life. My body is not firewood or a stone,” she said.
The petitioner said her husband denied her care, and the only child of the marriage.
“My husband does not take care of me, I feed and clothe myself.
“He refused to enroll our four-year-old son in school. He also does not pay our medical bills.
“I always run to my mother to get money to settle our medical bill,” she added.
Bilikisu also accused her husband of battery. She said he once beat her in public and she fainted.
Trouble, she said, started from the day her husband brought in the third wife.
“There was joy, love and peace in the house when it was only me, my husband, his first wife, and the children. The new wife always fights me and curses my child.”
Olushesi did not deny the allegation of sex starvation, but blamed Bilikisu for being the architect of her problem.
The respondent said his wife once refused him sex, and since then he abandoned her.
“Yes, I starved her of sex. It is tit-for-tat. There was a day I entered her room to sleep with her, she left the bed to sleep on the floor.
“I made an attempt eight times to sleep with her, but she refused. Since that day, I just put her aside, after all she is not the only wife I have,” he boasted.
The 45-year-old building contractor said he used to care for his child and wife. He claimed being responsible for the foodstuffs bought at home.
He consented to the dissolution of the marriage, and urged the court to grant his wife her wish as he was no longer interested in the marriage.
The court president, Mr. Akin Akinniyi, after listening to the estranged couple advised them to reconcile and maintain peace.
He therefore adjourned the case to April 12 for judgment.
- NAN