The 13-year old marriage between A.Y. Joshua and his wife, Juliana, has crashed after the husband discovered that his wife was secretly taking contraceptives in order not to get pregnant any longer after four children.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that Joshua has filed a suit before the Customary Court, Ushafa in Abuja, seeking for the dissolution of the marriage on the ground of her secret use of contraceptives without his consent.
An embittered Joshua told the Court that the marriage had produced only four children and his wife’s action has caused emotional trauma and had disrupted the fundamental purpose of their marriage, which was to raise a family and have children.
An embattled Joshua also told the Court that apart from administering contraceptive injections without his consent to prevent childbirth, she had secret affairs with another man he identified as John, whom he described as a laboratory scientist.
He lamented that these incidents had happened despite his diligent provision of financial support to his wife, contributing N150,000 monthly for the family’s maintenance.
“They continued their relationship without any regard for me, the law of the realm and the penalty by the law of the realm.
That unknown to me, my wife went to inject herself to stop giving birth without my consent and this is my primary purpose of getting married to her and this act of my wife has defeated my purpose of being married to her from the beginning and this is a fundamental setback in my life transactions” he said.
He asked the Court to dissolve the marriage and in addition, sought N2,750,000 in damages from John for what he alleged as intrusion and destroying his marriage.
However, in her response Juliana denied the allegation of extramarital affairs and alleged her husband, Joshua, of engaging in romantic relationships with other women even going so far as to rent houses for them.
She stated that she kept her distance from her husband because he has infection, he doesn’t respect her to the point that he was having an affair with their next door neighbour and even paid her house rent, leaving the receipt for the payment in a place where she will easily see it and when she confronted him, he made flimsy excuses.
“One of the ladies he sponsored left him after realizing he was married with children and had all along been lying to her.”
“The Petitioner infected me with a sexually transmitted veneral disease,” she posited.
Juliana informed a three-member panel of the Court, led by Honorable Uloma Priscilla Jibuaku, that her association with John was solely business related. She explained that John’s wife is a close friend of hers, and she supplies clothing to her.
However, having listened to both parties, the Court adjourned for further hearing for possible reconciliation and settlement.