14th November, 2012
An Agege Grade ‘A’ Customary Court on Tuesday in Lagos sentenced a man, Edem Asuquo, to two months imprisonment for contempt.
The president of the court, Mr. Emmanuel Sokunle, said Asuquo should be kept behind bars for flouting a subsisting judgement.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Asuquo’s wife, Grace, had filed a suit seeking the dissolution of her 13-year-old marriage on the grounds that her husband was threatening her life because she was childless.
Forty-two-year old Grace, who lives at 4, Thompson St., Ishaga, a Lagos suburb, had been sent out of the house by the husband.
However, in his earlier ruling, the court’s president ordered the man to allow his ex-wife to pack her belongings from the house, but he refused.
Sokunle said:“I gave a judgement on Oct. 30 and I ordered the woman to go with some policemen to pack her property from Asuquo’s house, but he refused.
“He insisted that he would not leave the woman even after judgement was given and this is tantamount to contempt of court.
“ Asuquo is hereby sentenced to two months imprisonment for contempt of court”.
In his defence, Asuquo, 51, who lives at 4, Ikokoyi Close, Iju Water Works, urged the court not to dissolve his marriage.
He said his wife accused him of battery and threatening her life to attract the court’s sympathy.
“I have never beaten her; I love her unconditionally even without having any child for me.
“She deserted me because of my physical disability caused by an accident. She left me when I needed a shoulder to lean on.
“It is sad that the woman I trusted all my life could do such a wicked act to me,” Asuquo, a driver, said sobbing.
The estranged wife had told the court that she had suffered all kinds of inhuman treatment in the hands of Asuquo.
“He is irritated at everything I do and anytime I gave him food he threw it at me.
“The day he sent me out of the house he did not allow me to take any of my clothes, threatening to kill me if I return to the house.”
“I have just paid two years’ rent on our apartment before he threw me out. I want the court to dissolve the union,” Grace said.