Woman seeks divorce over husband's constant beating

A 29-year-old woman, Perpetual Ezenwa, has begged the Igando Customary Court sitting in Lagos State, to save her life by dissolving her four months old marriage because her husband, Charles Ezenwa, batters her anytime they have a minor disagreement, leaving her with bruises.

Perpetual who told the court she got married to her husband after dating him for less than two months, said the beating began just four days after Charles paid her dowry and has continued unabated and she fears he could kill her in the long run.

“We got married after courting for less than two months. Before I married him, I started noticing his behaviors but when I told my father, he said I should not leave him that he would change after our marriage.

I believed he said that because they are from the same village in Imo and being the first daughter of my parents, they wanted me to marry on time. But, he kept becoming worse and I’ve decided to leave after four months of our marriage.

Four days after the payment of my dowry and our traditional marriage, he started beating me on flimsy excuses. He beats me with turning sticks in one of those days, all because I received a text message from a friend and the message only reads 'good day madam, how’s your weekend?' This was what Charles saw that day and he nearly killed me.

Come to think of it, this same man that was beating me is having an affairs with the fiancée of one of our neighbors. He was caught on one of those days and I got to know about it.

I told my father of all that happened but he would only say I should endure it. When I couldn’t bear it again, I moved to my parent’s house and I’ve asked Charles to come and get his dowry back according to our tradition so that I can marry another man but, he has refused to collect it, saying he would allow me to suffer because he knows I can’t marry another man unless he collect the dowry and that I would grow old in my father’s house.”

Her husband was not in court to state his side of the story, prompting the Court’s president, Adegboyega Omilola, to adjourned the case till February 8, 2016.