An Aba-na-Ohazu Customary Court, near Aba, on
Tuesday dissolved a 33 –year-old marriage between
Eugene Okoli and his wife, Harrieth, on grounds of
denial of conjugal rights and irrational behaviour. The
dissolution of the marriage, contracted in 1983,
followed a suit filed by Okoli claiming that his wife had
been behaving irrationally and had denied him sex for
eight years running.
He said, “My wife is cantankerous and nagging, without
justifiable cause. She has for over eight years now
denied me my conjugal rights.
“She now reacts to me in a despicable manner, which I
think is intolerable. And all the efforts I have made to
reconcile with her have failed because of her
intransigence.
“From her ways of doing things now, it is clear that
there is no more love existing between us.”
He, therefore, prayed the court to dissolve the marriage
having seen evidences that it had broken down
irretrievably.
In her defence, she alleged that her husband beats her
at will, for which she had reported him to the Human
Rights Commission at their zonal office which serves
Abia in Enugu, Enugu State.
She stressed that she entrusted her husband with the
gains of her trading, which gave the family three shops
at Cemetery Market and four plots of land in Aba and
had benefited much from her efforts.
She said that her husband had sold out two plots of the
land with only two remaining now, while occupying the
four rooms bungalow built in one of them at Alaoji,
Ugwunagbor LGA, Aba.
Harrieth, therefore, rejected the idea of dissolution of
the marriage but opted for separation between her and
her husband.
Magistrate Diamond Olewengwa, having heard the
parties, noted that it was obvious that the parties were
no longer compatible as love, which is a cardinal point
of marriage, was now extinct.
He said, “ Indeed, I am of the view that rather than
continue to live in a union that may lead to either party
losing his or her life, it is better to severe them for both
to remain alive.”
The magistrate, therefore, declared the marriage
dissolved and asked Harrieth to return her N1, 100 bride
price, hence both are now free to remarry anybody of
their choice.
Olewengwa granted Harrieth continued ownership of
two out of three shops she claimed and gave Eugene
ownership of the remaining properties the family owned.
