A mother of three, Mrs Mercy Augustine, on Thursday sought dissolution of her 15-year-old marriage to Linus Augustine, accusing him of battering her.

Mercy, 35, approached an Ado-Ekiti Customary Court seeking the dissolution on the ground of frequent beating by her husband, unruly behaviour, assault and adultery.

The petitioner told the court that the respondent was fond of maltreating and disgracing her in public.

Mercy, a public servant, also accused the respondent of having extra-marital affairs other women, saying he brought some of them home.

The petitioner said that since she left her husband’s house on Aug. 31, 2013, he had refused to allow her visit the children in his custody.

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She appealed to the court ‎to save the future of her children and award custody of the children to her in order to give them proper care. Mercy prayed the court to dissolve the marriage to enable her have rest of mind.

The petitioner ‎also appealed to the court to restrain her husband’s relatives from threatening her life.The respondent, however, denied the allegations levelled against him by the petitioner.

“I never cheated on my wife from the day I married her,’’ he said. Linus, 47, a public servant, accused his wife of infidelity, saying he caught her in the act in April 2014. “When I queried her on her wrongdoing, she never showed remorse,’’ he said.

The respondent told the court that due to the misunderstanding, the petitioner requested for transfer to Ado-Ekiti and left him and the children in Lokoja, where they have been living since May 2014.

Linus said he was not satisfied with the transfer of his wife to Ado-Ekiti, and he decided to request for her transfer back to Lokoja in January 2015. “However, my wife failed to honour the transfer request,’’ he said. Linus agreed to the decision of the petitioner to seek divorce.

“I agree for the dissolution of our marriage, this will allow peace to reign in our lives,’’ he said. The respondent, however, prayed the court to grant him custody of the three children.”I want the court to grant me the custody of our three children, because I had been taking care of them for the past three years since their mother  abandoned them,’’ he said.

The president of the court, Mrs Olayinka Akomolede, adjourned the case till March 23 for address.