A woman has asked an Igando customary court to dissolve her 18-year-old
marriage citing so many reasons, the most prominent being that he has
not had sex with her for over 9 years.45-year-old Helen Otike, who does not have a child, told the court that her husband, Godwin Otike, abandoned her in his five-bedroom duplex in Lagos for seven years and traveled to Abuja to start a family with another woman without her knowledge.
She also alleged that her husband had another wife and three kids prior to getting married to her, but he also kept that hidden from her and she only found out after they were married. In all, Godwin allegedly has children from three different women, but none with Helen.
"My husband does not want me to have a child; he has refused to sleep with me. We live as strangers in the house, no intimacy no relationship. My husband relocated to Abuja and left only me in the house he built; he refused to take care of me," Helen told the court on Wednesday.
“Whenever I call him, he always told me that he will call me back, which he never did. On two occasions, I traveled to Abuja, I was able to locate where he is working but he refused to take me to his house. It was later I heard that he had married another woman in Abuja who had children for him.” She also spoke about the previous family her husband had before he married her and how she had no idea until much later.
"I stumbled on pictures of my husband’s wedding, I confronted him with those pictures and he confessed that he married the woman when he was in the world. I accepted his plea but not long he impregnated another woman before relocating to Abuja.” Mrs Otike went on to inform the court that her husband took advantage of her brother's generosity to dupe people and got her brother in trouble with the law.
"When my husband went to Abuja, I connected him with my brother who accommodated him for two years and also introduced him to a business. But he duped the people my brother introduced him to and ran away from my brother’s house and my brother was arrested. She begged the court to end her marriage to Godwin who already had so many children so that she who had none could move on with her life and try at becoming a mother.
The accused husband, Godwin Otike, while reacting to the allegations leveled against him explained that he stopped having sex with his wife because he had been told by his mother that his mother-in-law is the cause of his misfortune and for that reason he chose to stay away from her daughter though he has nothing against his wife.
"My mother told me that my mother-in-law was responsible for my downfall which I strongly believed because my health and businesses were booming until I married my wife," Godwin said.
“When my mother-in-law was invited to come and say what she knows about my businesses and health, she refused to come. Because of that, I have to stop any intimacy with her daughter and that also made me to abandon her in my house to relocate to Abuja to start a new life.”The case has been adjourned to February 28 for further hearing.