Worried by his wife’s adulterous acts, Mr Kolawole Okeeyi, a businessman, on Wednesday approached the Igando Customary Court in Lagos to terminate his 31-year-old marriage.
Okeeyi, 51, accused his wife, Funmilayo, with whom he had five children of infidelity.
“My wife is having an affair with my pastor, I got to know when I did not have credit on my phone and wanted to use her phone to call our pastor to report her for starving my mother of food.
“I picked her phone and I saw on the screen “sent message”. I mistakenly clicked on it and the message opened, I saw several love messages my wife sent and received from our pastor.
“I showed her the messages when she came in, but she begged me, I seized the phone and later confronted our pastor with those text messages, but he told me to do my worst.
“I also caught her with my brother in a hotel in Oyo State; I wanted to ignore them, but I later confronted them so that they will not deny later,” he said.
The petitioner said his wife was after his life and that he had been attacked on two occasions.
“In Aug. 20, 2013, I got to the front of my gate, as I honked for my children to open the gate, suddenly three men jumped down from a motorcycle, pointing a gun at me.
“But for the timely intervention of the police, I would have been killed. When I entered my house, I told my wife what happened, but she did not say anything.
“Four months later, while coming from work, three men intercepted me, pointing a gun at me to come down and enter the booth, I complied and they drove me off.
“But luckily for me, my phone rang, one of them picked it, the caller addressed me as pastor and said that I should come to the church early that I will be ministering, but I am not a pastor.
“One of the guys said that they should not kill me that I am a pastor; that in the bible God said that they should not touch his anointed or do his prophet harm.
“After a hot argument among them, they stopped the car, stripped me naked and absconded with my car.
“A good Samaritan gave me clothes to wear. When I got home, I told my wife again about the incident, but she said nothing.
“That same 2013, my only three buses that plied Port-Harcourt, Akure and Abeokuta were involved in accident and were condemned, I again informed my wife, but no response from her,” he said.
Okeeyi said because of these calamities and threat to his life, he ran away from the house he built same year to start squatting with friends.
He pleaded with the court to dissolve the union that he was no longer in love as his life was no longer safe.
However, Funmilayo, 43, trader, denied all the allegations. She said she was not having an affair with any man.
“Those text messages on my phone were forged; I never sent nor received any love messages from our pastor.
“My husband saw me and his brother in a hotel , but we are not dating, his brother just followed me to book for a room when I went for a burial in Oyo State.
She accused her husband’s family of battery.
“When I was pregnant for our fifth baby, my husband’s family stormed our house, accusing me of having an affair, they beat me to pulp, in fact, I don’t know how I got to the hospital,” she said.
The mother of five boys begged the court not to grant her husband’s wish as she was still in love.
The Court President, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, adjourned the case to Nov. 29 for further hearing.
NAN