Alcoholic stupor, hemp-smoking crash 2-year-old marriage in Lagos

After about two years of irreconcilable differences orchestrated by the husband’s excessive alcoholism and hemp smoking, a Lagos court on Tuesday dissolved the marriage between Segun Falaye and his wife, Celestina.

A Lagos suburb Igando Customary Court ordered that the couple should cease to be husband and wife immediately.

The President of the court, Mr Ruphus Adeyeri, said all efforts to reconcile both parties were unsuccessful.

``Both parties are no longer husband and wife, they are free to go their separate ways," he ruled.

The petitioner, Celestina, 33, a business woman, had filed a suit seeking the dissolution of her marriage, citing her husband’s heavy drinking and hemp smoking habit.

``My husband takes alcoholic drinks excessively and gets drunk after which he falls inside gutter, misbehaving and disgracing me," she told the court.

Celestina said after smoking hemp, her former husband had always behaved strangely.

``My husband is always mentally disturbed after smoking hemp …he always descends on me giving me serious beating.’’

She regretted that the man could not manage the business she established for him as it collapsed two months after.

Celestina said:``I opened a bookshop for my husband, but he mismanaged it; the capital and the profit were spent on beer. He is lazy and does not want to work.

``He depends solely on me for feeding, paying the children’s school fees and for house rent."

The mother of two pleaded with the court to dissolve the marriage, saying there is no love lost between them.

The respondent, Falaye, 40, who denied some of the allegations, said: ``I am used to drinking, but not always. I have never taken Indian hemp before.

``I take alcoholic drinks moderately not excessively.

``I used to pay the bills when I was working, but now that I have no job I cannot steal to fend for my family.

``My wife controls and commands me like a baby, all because she pays the bills.

``My wife is aggressive; she gets angry easily and always.’’

Falaye, however, urged the court not to grant his wife's request for the dissolution of the marriage, saying ``I still love her.’’