“My wife is always beating me, i need a divorce” – 75-yr-old man tells court

A 75-year-old man, Fashola Fakorede, on Thursday urged a Customary Court, in the Lagos suburb of Igando, to dissolve his marriage to his wife, Funke, 49, for allegedly beating him.

Fakorede told the customary court that his wife had turned him into a punching bag and also inflicted injuries over his body.

“My wife wants to kill me. She beats me every day. I don’t want to die now, save my life. My wife always beats me if I asked of food or anything. She has turned it to a routine affair, all the scars on my body are as a result of her battery on me,’’ he said.

Fakorede said his wife no longer takes care of him, adding, “She goes out and returns home at will without seeking my permission. She can go out for days and if I queried her, she will hit me with any dangerous weapon she can lay her hand on at that moment.

“And my daughter is also taking her footstep, she brings home different men and my wife will not query her. So, I sent her away from my house,’’ he said.

He urged the court to dissolve the union, saying that he was no longer in love with her and was tired of the regular battery, which had led to his ill-health.

“I am tired of the constant beating, I am afraid this woman will kill me one day. I am not ready to die now,’’ he pleaded.

Funke, a trader, denied the allegations, saying that she did not beat her husband and has always taken good care of him and respected him.

The mother of three, however, accused her husband of denying the children the right to go to school.

“My husband is unable to send any of his three children to secondary school. My husband is not responsible. None of our children went to secondary school, all of them stopped schooling at primary school,” she said.

She said her husband had disowned his daughter, and urged the court not to grant his wish as she still loved him.

“I have no anywhere to go as no man will want to marry me at my age,’’ ‘

The judge, Mr R. I. Adeyeri, adjourned the case till 25 November for further hearing.