Pastor Gideon Johnson of No 4, Boripe St., Basorun-Ibadan, Oyo State, on Wednesday accused his wife of poisoning his driver who then allegedly ran mad after eating a meal she prepared for him to eat.
Gideon said this at a Grade C Customary Court sitting at Agodi-Ibadan, where he had gone to seek the dissolution of his 17-year-old marriage to his wife, Oluwatoyin.
He accused his wife who has four children for him of bad character and threats to his life and other members of his family.
Gideon in his testimony told the court that he gave the food his wife prepared for him to his driver to eat.
“The innocent driver ran mad few hours after he had eaten the food and was chained before we could take him to his family for solution.
“She intended to run me mad, she is fetish, diabolical and a threat to my life; in fact she killed my senior brother and my father through her fetish ways.
“She almost succeeded in ruining my ministry when she ganged up with my enemies to spoil me before the big personalities that usually come to my church for prayers,’’ he said.
The pastor also told the court that he had not slept with his wife in the last 11 years because of her bad characters.
Gideon said that he would kill his wife if the court should decline his request to separate them.
However, Olwatoyin Johnson in her defence, objected to the allegations levelled against her and denied ever killing his father and brother- in-law.
The mother of four told the court that her husband abandoned her 11 years ago when he married another woman who had bore three kids for him.
“He neither cared for me nor for the four children of the marriage but was always abusing me whenever he was preaching on the pulpit in the church.
“He accused me of being a witch and possessed spiritual power and I had challenged him to do deliverance for me since he is a pastor,’’ she said.
She, however, pleaded with the court not to dissolve the marriage for the sake of the children.
The court’s president, Chief Mukaila Balogun, dissolved the marriage and ordered two children to be with the plaintiff while the custody of the remaining two children should be with their mother.
Balogun also ordered the plaintiff to be paying N8, 000 monthly as maintenance allowance for the two children that are in the custody of their mother.
He also directed the plaintiff to pay N12, 000 as house rent and N5, 000 as transport fees for the defendant to pack her load from the plaintiff’s house.
The president warned the parties to maintain peace and stay clear of anything that could bring disharmony.
