A woman has told a court in Lagos
that she would never grant her
husband a divorce unless he makes
her be like what she was before they
met. A 35-year-old woman, Basirat Alatise,
whose husband, Morufu Alatise, 48,
sought a dissolution of their marriage at
the Agboyi/Ketu Customary Court in
Lagos State, caused a mild drama when
she bluntly refused to agree to the divorce, saying that the only condition
she would accept the break up is if the
husband could restore her to the state he
met her so that she could be attractive to
a man if she is willing to get married
again. Morufu had petitioned the court to
dissolve the three-year-old marriage on
the grounds that there is no more love as
well as destruction of his property,
constant embarrassment in public and
show of wickedness but his wife insisted he must get her back to the state he met
her or he would be stuck with her for life. Morufu told the court that he met Basirat
at a carnival and liked her and then
decided to marry her; he said he met her
mum who gave her approval and they got
married. According to him, he told Basirat that he
had another woman who had a child for
him and she accepted arrangement but
that when she packed into his house, she
proved to be stubborn, fighting the
mother of his child whenever she came to visit, often fighting the woman,
embarrassing him in the process. He
added that his wife even got to the point
of getting him arrested and locking him
up in a police cell several times. But when the court asked the wife if she
also wanted the divorce, Basirat said she
was against it and would never agree to
it unless Morufu made her to go back to
how she was. “When I met my husband, he never told
me he was married. My relatives though,
were asking me how a man in his forties
would not be married; that it is better we
investigate and know why he is not yet
married all these years. It was then that we discovered that he
already has a wife and when I confronted
him, he said that the wife he married
died. After a while we discovered it was a
lie, that the wife is alive and I became
friends with her. After a while, we then discovered that he
now has another girlfriend he was
secretly seeing and the lady comes to his
office which is in our house to come visit
him. It was very embarrassing for me and
I confronted him and he told the lady to beat me up. We fought and the lady tore my clothes
and I immediately went to report at the
police station and he was arrested and
put in cell because he refused to produce
the lady who fought me but I eventually
bailed him. I still forgave him but he still brings the
new girlfriend to his office which my
father gave him. I couldn’t take it
anymore, so I usually harass him so that
he would know that I am not happy with
his attitude and he still continued and had the audacity to say he wants divorce. I will never accept any divorce except he
has the power to take me back to the
position he met me before I got pregnant;
return all the money I have spent,
otherwise, this our marriage is until death
do us part.”
