Mr. Olanrewaju Adeniran and Fatima were never married for the 27 years they lived together because no dowry was paid, according to a Mapo Grade “A” Customary Court in Ibadan.
The President of the court, Mrs. S.M. Akintayo, said that Nigerian law and custom said that the man had to pay a bride price to the wife’s parents for the marriage to be valid.
Akintayo made her decision based on different parts of the law. She decided that Adeniran and Fatima’s marriage didn’t need to be dissolved in the first place because they didn’t have a dowry.
She went on to say that other basic requirements were not met in order to consider Adeniran and Fatima’s union as a marriage.
“Merely asking whether Fatima loved Adeniran which Fatima’s father did was not enough to validate their togetherness as customary marriage.
“It is a wrong assumption to continue to believe that once there is a child or children between a man and a woman, they are husband and wife or married.
“No, there is no marriage between them, they are only cohabiting, they are merely living together in the same house,” Akintayo said.
The court’s president, however, granted an order of perpetual injunction restraining Fatima from further harassing, disturbing, intimidating, and interfering in the life of Adeniran henceforth.
Earlier, Adeniran, a retired civil servant and a resident of the Molade area in Ibadan had explained that his estranged wife was an unrepentant troublemaker and a nag.
Adeniran submitted that his wife had been detained on eight separate occasions as a result of her violent conduct and repulsiveness towards in-laws, tenants, and neighbors in the community.
“My brother who once accommodated us before I built my own house expelled us when he could no longer cope with Fatima’s ineptitude.
“My lord, Fatima no longer allows me to touch her anymore, she often tells me that I’m smelling.
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“Worst still, she vandalizes home appliances at any slightest provocation.
“She usually accuses me of womanizing,” the petitioner said.
Fatima, a businesswoman had prayed the court not to put an end to their love.
She, however, argued that her husband was a socialite and an adulterer.
“Adeniran has no fewer than eight concubines and some of them even came around to give me gifts anytime we did naming ceremonies.
“In fact, it came to a point when Adeniran kept telling me that he wanted to marry another wife,” the respondent stated.