Court dissolves four-year-old marriage over wife’s refusal to worship ‘Ifa’
A Grade C Customary Court, in Iseyin Oyo State on Thursday dissolved a four-year-old marriage between one Remi Atanda and Muri Atanda over religious difference.
The complainant, Muri, had approached the court seeking dissolution of the marriage over his wife’s refusal to worship Ifa with him.
‘Ifa’ is a traditional religion and a system of divination (the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means).
Muri said he could no longer tolerate the wife’s continuous “insubordination’’.
He said, “When we got married, we always attend our shrine together until about few months ago when she started having some friends and getting advice against my wishes.
“I had done everything possible to persuade her but she refused. Even I called her family to intervene and that also did not yield result.
“She has to move out of my house because her action was totally against my family tradition and customs. It is a taboo for me to keep her under my roof,” NAN quoted Muri as saying.
In his ruling, the President of the Court, Chief Adelodun Raheem, who frowned at the absence of the respondent, said it was obvious that the relationship between the estranged couple had totally broken down.
He, thereafter, dissolved the union accordingly.
The court’s president also granted the custody of the two children produced by the marriage to Muri.
