Court dissolves 15-yr-old marriage over abandonment, denial of conjugal rights

A Customary Court in Agege, Lagos State, on Tuesday dissolved the 15-year-old marriage between Kasoki Olekanma and his wife Ibukun over denial of conjugal rights.

The court also dissolved the marriage on grounds that Ibukun abandoned her husband and her four children.

President of the court, Mr Phillips Williams, held that the marriage could no longer stand because “love which is the key ingredient of a valid marriage no longer exists.

“It leaves no one in doubt that the marriage had broken down irretrievably.

“Consequently, I hereby order that the marriage between Kasoki Olekanma and Ibukun contracted in 2002 stands dissolved.

“The respondent (Ibukun) is hereby ordered to vacate the home of the petitioner, return her bride price and revert to her maiden or other name of her choice,’’ he said.

He urged both parties to keep the peace and not to threaten themselves.

Olekanma, 51, had filed a suit claiming that his wife was no longer interested in the marriage and had deserted him and their four children.

He said his wife lacked respect and had also failed in her conjugal duties, having left their home since Feb. 11, 2013 on her own volition.

“Prior to the time Ibukun left home, she told me she had secured a job in Ado-Ekiti.

“I asked her how the children will be taken care of in her absence, but she told me to take care of them since I was used to doing so

“I waited for Ibukun for three and half years, but she never returned home. She abandoned me and the children without looking back,” he said

Olekanma, urged the court to dissolve the marriage, give him custody of their four children and to award him any other consequential orders as the court may deem fit.

Newsverge reports that the respondent (Ibukun) was absent in court, but sent a message that she was no longer interested in the marriage and that the dissolution could go on in her absence.