17th August, 2015
Esther Ajagbe
Joseph Ogbigo, 55, a retiree of Chevron Nigeria Limited, is set to divorce his wife, Rita Ogbigo, over alleged adultery and financial recklessness.
He dragged her before an Igando Customary Court, in Lagos, western Nigeria, on a five-count charge of lack of care for him and the children, lack of respect for him and his family, willingly abandoning her matrimonial home for days, financial mismanagement of business and lack of love.
Ogbigo told the court that his wife never cared for him or the children.
He said on 18 March, 2015 she left the house for 10 days and took his car to Dele Ara Street in Ikotun (a church environment).
He said two days before she brought back the car, she lost her aunt and he gave her N22,000 for the burial.
Since then he said he did not see her until 15 May, 2015, after she had crashed his Highlander SUV which made her abandon the car.
Ogbigo said his wife prefers the car to the marriage. He claimed he opened a Coca-Cola depot worth N3.5 million and a rice depot worth N1.3 million for her.
He also told the court that Rita owed Coca-Cola N500,000 which made him seize the shop and sell the empty crates of bottles in order to pay the debt.
He also alleged that Rita owed a Pepsi dealer N270,000 which also prompted him to clear out the empty crates of bottles.
The retiree further accused his wife of adultery, saying she has a boyfriend who sent her a romantic message seven years ago and when she denied, he had to ensure she proved her innocence by sending her to the village to perform the traditional rites of killing a goat.
When Rita was called to the dock, she testified that her husband opened the depot for her, but did not spend the amount of money he claimed.
She said the Coca-Cola depot he opened for her was worth N1.5 million, and not N3.5 million and that the rice depot was worth N200,000, and not N1.3 million, and Pepsi N500,000.
She also accused her husband of freely giving out bags of rice from the rice depot to close associates and to a political party.
Rita claimed that she still loved her husband because he is the father of her children.
However, Mr. David Abraham (uncle to the complaint) said that the family members had already decided that the marriage be dissolved.
The case was adjourned till 2 September, 2015 by the president of the court, Mr. Oyekan.