Tuesday 22 September 2015

‘My wife refuses to bear my surname’

She always tells me that she is comfortable with her father’s
name, and that she cannot change it — Husband

An Igando Customary Court in Lagos State has dissolved a three-year marriage of a civil servants over the refusal of the woman to bear her husband’s surname. The court president, Mr R. Adeyeri, held that Mr Johnson Munago and his wife Helen, both aged 35, were tired of their marriage, as all efforts to reconcile them failed. “The court has no choice than to dissolve the union in spite of the woman’s claim that she loves her husband,’’ he said. Adeyeri referred the custody of the two-year-old child produced by the marriage to the Family Court.

The president also ordered Johnson to pay N50, 000 rehabilitation cost to Helen. Johnson, it was gathered, had filed a suit for the dissolution of the marriage over Helen’s refusal to change her surname. The petitioner told the court that since he married Helen in 2010, she had refused to bear his name. “She always tells me that she is comfortable with her father’s name, and that she cannot change it,” Johnson said. He also submitted that Helen was too demanding, adding that she insisted that he should rent a flat for her and be giving her N10,000 weekly for upkeep. “When I tried to explain that I didn’t have money to rent a flat, she told me that she agreed to marry me just to solve her personal problem.

“She said that she was diagnosed of a womb ailment and that the doctor advised her to get pregnant as soon as possible. “She told me that she had got what she wanted, and thereafter packed out of our apartment on January 16, 2011 with my son to an unknown destination,” he said. The petitioner also said that the woman regularly returned home late in the night. Responding, Helen told the court that she still loved her husband, although he was a drunk and had refused to care for his family. “He spends his salary on drinks and comes back home drunk,’’ she said Helen told the court that she sponsored their wedding ceremony in 2010 and that Johnson failed to reimburse her as he promised. She added that her husband abandoned her and the child for eight months and returned to seek divorce.