Cleric to court: It’s unbearable living as a bachelor with wife in Liberia

A 48-year-old pastor, Onyekwere Osondu, has pleaded with an Ojo Customary Court, Lagos to dissolve his 10-year-old marriage, saying it is unbearable living alone with his wife in Liberia.
Osondu told the court in Lagos on Monday that his wife, Ogechi, travelled to Liberia “a little over a year ago without looking back”.
“Prolonging this matter is not pleasing to me; although the court made several efforts to get my wife or someone from her family to appear before the court, yet there was no positive response.
“I am a man of God and I must maintain my moral status; her absence has made me live like a bachelor for over one year and that is becoming more unbearable.
“Since my wife abandoned me and went to Liberia, I need to move on with my life. I cannot remain single forever; I need to remarry,“ he pleaded.
He earlier told the court that his wife left home in 2014 for Liberia without his knowledge or approval.
“It was in trying to search for her that her mother invited me to come to the village and that was when I learnt that she had joined her brother living in Liberia.
“Her family members summoned me and claimed that I maltreated her because she had no child for me, but this is not true,” he said.
He added that Ogechi later sent him a text message, which reads, “God has delivered me from you and I have changed my name to my maiden name”.
“When I informed her that I had filed a divorce suit, she responded by saying, ‘thank God.
“I am a man of God and I have carried out all traditional settlement required,” he said.
He alleged that his wife must have found solace in the comfort of another man in Liberia and prayed the court for a divorce.
“She is, obviously, fed up with the union and her refusal to return should not prolong the judgement of this court,” he said.
The Court’s President, Chief Joseph Ogunmola, however, ordered the court bailiff to contact any member of Ogechi’s family to witness the judgement, since all reconciliation measures were exhausted.
Ogunmola, thereafter, adjourned the case to June 29, for judgement.