From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
An Upper Area Court sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital has dissolved a two-year-old marriage between a military officer, Capt. Alexander Ifeanyi Otuve and Joy Uwariome Iziven over alleged illicit outings and late return to the matrimonial home.
Capt. Otuve (Petitioner) had approached the court in a suit No. UACII/cv.62/2016, praying it to divorce his wife, Joy, whom he married in 2012 under the Era native law and custom of Owan East of Edo State.
The petitioner, Capt. Otuve in his evidence before the court, disclosed that when he was posted to Makurdi, Benue State in 2014, his wife refused to come along with him.
He explained further that even before his transfer to Makurdi, he had noticed some ‘funny’ attitude in the marriage alleging his wife would go out and come back at late hours while efforts by both his family and hers to resolve the issue failed.
Otuve testified further that in 2014 when he was posted to the North-East, his wife refused to follow him and he began to wonder how he would be at the war front and at the same time be thinking of what is happening in his marriage at home.
“I decided to follow it legally, we last spoke with each other in 2014 when I tried to retrieve my car from her. I decided to let her be so that I face my life. She is not a woman I got married to any more,” the petitioner told the court.
In her judgement, the presiding Magistrate, Mrs. Fatima A. Akintomide said the court had established that there was no issue of custody of any surviving child in the marriage and it was a fact that the petitionewa is able to establish lack of communication with his wife for the past two years, though, such other alleged grounds would not have been enough for the court to grant a divorce.
But, she however, said the smart way the petitioner answered the court when asked how he got the respondent present address by responding that it was through the ‘social media’ where the respondent advertise her business, the court became convinced that the parties were already separated since locating the respondent to be served through substituted means was equally difficult.
“Much may be said but the truth still remains, I cannot force an unwiring partner on a billing partner, but equally an unwillingly partner. The marriage between the petitioner and respondent is hereby dissolved,” Akintomide ruled.