My husband raped me and I had to lose a two-month old pregnancy in
the process. I want the dissolution of my two-year-old marriage,”
a-38-year-old wife of a pastor had told a Lagos Island Customary Court .
The
petitioner, Mary Iyayi, a make-up artist, who lives at 49, Oke-Olu St.,
Iponri, a suburb of Lagos, confessed this development to the court.
She
alleged thus, “My pastor-husband held my hands to the wall, so I could
not move. I told him that I was pregnant but he did not listen, until he
forcefully made love to me.
“After it, I started bleeding and I lost
the pregnancy. He told me later that he had just helped me to flush out
the pregnancy.’’
Mary said that she had three abortions for pastor during their courtship in order to save his ministry from crumbling.
“It was after we had been married that I knew that he married me because of my money and not that he truly loves for me.
“He once told me that he preferred a woman with big bosoms which I do not have,” she said.
Mary
told the court that her husband was fond of beating her at any slight
provocation and that act had led her to have two miscarriages.
“While he was beating me, he also pushed me and I hit my stomach against the wall, and I lost a pregnancy in the process.’’
She
also told the court that before she packed out of her matrimonial home
in June, last year , her husband had stopped sleeping in the same room
with her.
“Due to the three abortions
and two miscarriages I suffered, I was told at the hospital that my womb
had been tampered with and that it would take divine intervention for
me to be pregnant again.
“Also, my husband threatened to kill
me if I should leave him, saying it is against the law of his church. He
said that their church law forbids its members from marrying another
wife if the former wife was still alive.
“I packed all my belongings
from his house except my wedding gown which he seized. I want the court
to help me collect it from him and dissolve the union.
“I am making
this appeal because I am the only child of my parents and I do not want
to die prematurely and mysteriously,” she said.
Mary also told the court that she bought almost all the items including the two cell phones her husband was currently using.
While
responding, the husband, Pastor Samuel Iyayi, 35, who lives at the
Assembly of God Church, Alpha Beach, Lekki, Lagos State, told the court
that he did not rape his wife.
“It is true we had sex and she lost some blood in the process, but I did not rape her.
“She
also left home in April 2014 for one and a-half months only to return
after some of our church members had intervened on her behalf.
Iyayi, however, speaking on the wedding gown said, “I had sold the wedding gown when my father was sick and I could not raise money to offset his hospital bills.
He said that he was still in love with his wife and was ready to have her back if she was still in love with him.
The
President, Chief Awos Awosola, ordered the man to produce the wedding
gown in court on June 1, the next adjourned date and told the couple to
maintain peace.
He adjourned the case to June 1 for further hearing.
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