OYO State’s Ile-Tuntun Customary Court has received a petition from Ibadan housewife Toyin Bello asking that her 16-year old marriage be dissolved because her husband had not had sex with her once in the last 10 years.
In an unprecedented case, Mrs Bello asked the court to dissolve her marriage to Dotun Bello on grounds of 10 years of sex starvation, lack of productivity and irresponsibility. She told the court that when she could no longer bear the shame of childlessness, she got pregnant for another man..
According to Mrs Bello, about six years after the death of the legitimate child she had for her husband, he adamantly refused to make sexual advances at her and she became worried. She said she then started running from pillar to post, seeking spiritual and other available solutions towards getting pregnant for him.
Mrs Bello added: “Dotun himself went to the hospital but he never showed me the result of the test conducted on him in spite of my numerous demands. When Dotun was not at home one day, I saw the result where he hid it and it read unproductive due to low count discharge.
“With age not on my side any longer, I did the needful by secretly getting pregnant for another man so as to make him happy. Immediately after delivery, Dotun started misbehaving as he became grossly irresponsible and hostile to me and to the child.
“In fact, for the past 10 years now, he hasn’t slept on the same bed with me let alone touch me and I’m already feeling the trauma. Despite Dotun’s disaffection and irresponsibility to me, he is also taking steps to kill me so as to inherit my house and claim the child that doesn’t belong to him.
“That is the reason why I have fled home to start sleeping in our church in the Asi area of Ibadan. My lord, I cannot continue to waste my time with Dotun, age is no longer on my side, so please dissolve our union.”
In his response, Mr Bello admitted that he once had a low count discharge, adding that he had since taken care of himself. However, he blamed his wife for their sexual problems, saying it was her who constantly denied him sex.
Mr Bello said: “My lord, Toyin denied me my conjugal rights most of the time, usually complaining that she was tired, having worked all through the day. In fact, there was a particular night I broke the door into her bedroom but she was shouting that I wanted to rape her. The only mistake I made was that I didn’t report the incident to her relatives.”
Delivering judgement, the president of the court, Chief Henry Agbaje ruled that the couple produce more evidence to back up their claims while urging them to involve their relatives to resolve the matter amicably.
