By BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE
A middle aged woman, Afusat Ogunrinde, has told an Oshodi Grade ‘B’ Customary Court in Lagos that when she traveled, her husband, Ibrahim, woke up her first daughter, Sidikat, in the middle of the night and asked her to take off her pants and face the wall.

Afusat said on her return from travel, the teenager (Sidikat), who she had for another man, complained that Ibrahim made sexual advances to her, adding “I didn’t initially understand what was happening. All I knew was that my husband was always at loggerheads with my daughter.”

Urging the court to dissolve their 17-year-old marriage, which is blessed with three children, Afusat said she had to send her daughter packing due to the development and noted that her husband threatened to kill Sidikat.

She said, “When I sent Sidikat away to another place, three streets away, he still looked for her and beat her up. He has gone weird of late. He beats me up and would not stop until I get wounded. One night, he came back home drunk, gave me a knife and asked me to kill him. I had to run out of the home to save my life. My life is endangered and as far as I’m concerned, this marriage can no longer stand because it has already broken down.”

Narrating her ordeal, she said they stay in a one-room apartment and there was a day, in the middle of the night, that she suddenly heard Sidikat yelling for help.   Afusat said when she woke up, she saw her husband (Ibrahim) close to where Sidikat slept.

In her words: “When I challenged him, he told me he was pursuing a rat and that the rat climbed his feet and ran towards the place where Sidikat slept. I took the matter up with him and since then he became more quarrelsome with her.”

Sidikat, who also appeared in Court, when asked to state her own part of the allegation said that her stepfather (Ibrahim) had sexually harassed her, adding “all what my mother said is true. When I refused to give in to my stepfather’s advances, he started persecuting me.”

According to the teenager, at a time her stepfather would pour water on the bed, when she was fast asleep, in a bid to put her in a bad light by accusing her of bed-wetting all because she did not allow him to sleep with her.

Responding to the allegations, Ibrahim told the Court that he took Sidikat as a daughter and would never try such a thing, adding “it looked like I was persecuting her because I wanted the best for her. Trouble began between me and her when she and my first child altered their school report cards and I tried to correct them.

I beat both of them and I was surprised that she rebelled and despised me. Since then, we have been living like cat and mouse in the house.”   Ibrahim admitted beating his wife, saying that the reason he beat her was to make her stop cheating on him and denied making advances to Sidikat.

Meanwhile, the acting Court President, Mrs. R.I. Adetola, after hearing both parties warned them to maintain peace pending the determination of the suit.

The matter was adjourned till June 16, for further hearing.