A 55-year-old man, Elder Moses Ajuwa, has approached the Grade A Customary Court sitting in Lagos State seeking a dissolution of his three-year-old marriage over allegation that his wife had an unbearable body odour.
Ajuwa claimed that the odour that emanated from his 30-year-old wife, Hauwa Ajuwa had made it impossible for him to continue sleeping with her.
The petitioner also alleged that his wife is so lazy and dirty that it is difficult for her to fulfil her obligations as a wife.
He said: “I do not know why I must continue with this marriage. My so called wife can’t cook or keep the home. She’s so lazy and dirty I can’t even sleep with her; the only thing she knows is to dress up and go to parties. I want a divorce.
“I can’t continue with this marriage; it is better to be a bachelor than stay married to this excuse of a woman. She has failed at being a woman. I married her so she could take care of me after my first wife died; this is the worst mistake I ever made.
“She can’t keep the home or cook. Every corner of our house stinks and unless I sweep, she doesn’t.
“Our rooms are filled with dirty laundry and I had to take my two children from my late wife to her family for proper care because I don’t want them in her care because she will turn them to slaves.
“She is so dirty that I can’t even sleep with her; I buy food because our kitchen is too dirty to cook. Anytime I clean it up, she messes the house up again.
“She never stays at home, once she gets one clean cloth and can dig her makeup out of the dung-hill she created in the room and a corner of the sitting room, she’s off. She rarely takes her bath. I have tried my best to make her change without success. Please separate us.”
On her part however, Mrs Ajuwa denied all the allegations levelled against her by her husband and told the court that her husband is too autocratic.
She said: “I am a small girl and he wants me to dress like an old woman. That I’m married doesn’t mean I should act like a dead woman. I want my marriage to work but my husband needs to relax his stance.
“His other allegation is in bad faith because I have told him that the house is too big for me alone to maintain.”
The case was adjourned by the court after they gave the couple two months to see if they could resolve their differences and cohabit peacefully once again.
