My wife is a thief, man tells court

A retired civil servant, Emmaunel Osuya, on Friday told an Igando Customary Court, Lagos, that his 32-year-old marriage to Abigael for alleged stealing and battery.

``My wife is a thief; she stole my ATM and withdrew all my money without my consent, thereby rendering me financially broke.

``I cannot keep money at home again because my wife will steal it.

``She is not always satisfied with the money I give her despite the fact that my children always send her money every month,’’ Osuya, 55, said.

The petitioner also accused his wife of always beating him and that he was afraid that she might kill him someday.

``My wife has turned me into a punching bag, she beats me almost everyday and that has led to my developing high blood pressure which led to stroke.

``On three different occasions, my wife broke my crutches preventing me from moving round the house,’’ he further told the court.

Osuya described his wife as a stubborn and disobedient woman who was keeping bad friends that were influencing her behaviours.

``My wife refuses to obey me, I have warned her several times to stop associating with our 80-year-old next door neighbour whom everybody suspects to be a witch because she beat her husband to dead.

``She spends her entire day in the woman’s house; she cooks and baths there and comes back in the evening without preparing food for me, despite my illness,’’ he said.

He begged the court to dissolve the more than three decades marriage, which he said, lacked love.

Responding, Abigael, 50, denied all the allegations of stealing and beating the husband.

``I have never laid a finger on my husband and that the reverse was the case as my husband was the one who always beat me up.

``It is my husband that always beat me at any slightest provocation, I have never beaten him,’’ Abigael said.

The housewife also denied stealing from her husband.

According to her, the woman (her neighbour) is a good friend and that nothing can separate them.

Abigael said that she always cooked for her husband whenever he provided money for food.

She begged the court not to grant her husband's wish because she was still in love with him.

The court president, Mr Rasak Adeyeri, adjourned the case to March 16 for further hearing.