He didn’t tell me he had 3 wives—woman tells court

“My husband deceived me; he did not tell me that he had three wives before marrying me, ” says a divorce-seeking 42-year-old businesswoman,  Funmilayo Otegbola.

The woman told an Igando Customary Court in Lagos on Friday that her husband impregnated her and hurried her into the house.

“When I became pregnant for my husband, I moved into his house although we are not legally married.

“I discovered that he already had three wives living with him, there was nothing I could do since I was pregnant, I had to stay,” she said while responding to a divorce suit filed by her husband of 13 years, Rufus Otegbola.

Funmilayo said the man had turned her into a punching bag.

“My husband beats me all the time and even when I was pregnant, he beat hell out of me; I fell into labour immediately, forcing the delivery of the baby.

“As a result of frequent beating, on May 9, 2016, I packed my belongings from his house and moved to my parent’s house,” she said, describing Rufus as an ungrateful person.

She continued: “When he lost his job, I was the one feeding him with his wives and their children and I was also paying the school fees of our children and my step children.”

The mother of four, however, consented to the dissolution of the marriage, saying “I am also fed up with the union.”

The petitioner, Otegbola, had approached the court, seeking to end the marriage over wife’s fetish practices.

“My wife is diabolical and fetish, she always comes home with charms (juju)and I feared she may kill me one day if I do not end the marriage.”

The 47-year-old businessman said that his wife packed out of their matrimonial home without his consent.

“My parent-in-law and my wife’s siblings came to my house to pack my wife’s property without my permission, “he said.

The petitioner, who claimed to be the fifth husband of the wife, described her as a “serial divorcee” as she had married and divorced four husbands before he married her.

“My wife is adulterous; I am the fifth man that married her.”

He urged the court to terminate the marriage that he was no longer in love with her.

The President of the court, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, after listening to the couple, adjourned the case until May 9 for further hearing.