I beat my wife for sneaking into bachelor’s room, teacher tells court

An Ibadan-based Islamic teacher, Naheem Salami, on Thursday declared before a customary court sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, that his veiled wife, Taiwo, had on several occasions left him on their matrimonial bed at night, only for him to discover she had sneaked into his neighbour’s room.

Salami, who was responding to a divorce petition Taiwo had filed against him, insisted the petitioner was “a wicked housewife.”

But the Islamic teacher said he was opposed to the divorce bid because of the children the marriage had produced and what he called his personal resolution not to offend her family.

“My lord, the reason why I usually beat Taiwo is because, whenever we are in bed, she would sneak out into the bedroom of a bachelor living in the same house with us. I have warned her over and over, but she keeps going there.

“I have promised not to beat her anymore and I have even sent our Alfa to intervene on my behalf, but Taiwo refused to listen,” he said.

The petitioner had told the court she was no longer interested in the marriage, alleging her husband had been beating her and even publicly stripped her naked.

She said, “He always beats me, even when I am pregnant or nursing a baby. He curses me and my parents all the time. He usually threatens to deal with me, if I dare leave his house. I gave birth to my child through caesarean section and he refused to pay for the surgery. It was my family that paid for it.

“When I left his house, I took my children along with me and I enrolled them at a private school but he came to my father’s house and forcefully took them away. He took them to a public school, which is irritating me. When he knew that I have known their school, he changed it to another public school.

“My children are suffering in his house. My lord, if you see the children, you will know they are suffering. I need to care for them when I am alive. The last time I saw them, they were hungry. Please sir, help me to have the custody of my children. He never caught me with any man as he said. He is a liar. He doesn’t have the fear of God as he claimed.”

The president of the court, Chief Odunade Ademola, said the allegations Taiwo levelled against Salami in seeking divorce were grave and wondered why he was opposing the divorce prayer.

Odunade dissolved the marriage “in the interest of peace and order” and awarded custody of the two children to the petitioner.