A 56-year-old driver, Olusegun Agogo, on Wednesday told an Igando Customary Court in Lagos that stealing is in the blood of his daughters while asking the court to dissolve his 19-year-old marriage because his wife encourages their children to steal.
He said that his wife, Olufumilayo, with whom he had two daughters, fights him whenever he tried to discipline his daughters for stealing.
“My daughters aged 18 and 14 have penchant for stealing and my wife does not allow me to beat or punish them.
“There was a day I came home and met Odua People Congress (OPC) members disciplining my daughters by asking them to stool down.
“When I asked what their offences were,I was told that they stole N50,000 from a woman four houses away from ours, the money was recovered from them.
“When they came in, I wanted to beat them but my wife did not allow me.
“My first daughter once stole my phone from where I was charging it, when I asked my wife and daughters for the phone, they claimed that they did not take it, so I assumed somebody from outside must have stolen it.
“Some days later I heard the ringing tone of my missing phone coming from my daughter’s room, when I rushed there, behold she was receiving a call with the phone.
“She had destroyed my SIM card.
“Stealing is in my daughters blood, they duplicated my room key without my knowledge and stole my N100,000 that I collected from “Esusu’’ savings.
“On another occasion, they stole N20,000, from me and I stopped bringing money home, because most times, I come home to meet my room ransacked.
“Last month, they stole my two phones from my room while I was sleeping up till now, I have not recovered them.
“I can no longer walk freely on the street because of my daughters’ behaviour,’’ the estranged husband said.
The petitioner said his wife once accused him of stealing N40,000 from her.
“Once, my wife accused me of stealing her N40,000, she hit me with a big plank, I dodged it from hitting my head but I sustained injury on my wrist from the plank.
“When her daughters noticed that the missing money belonged to their mother, they returned it back to her,” he said
Agogo begged the court to dissolve the marriage since he was no longer in love with his wife as she had caused great damage to their children.
However, the respondent, Olufumilayo, said that her husband did not care for her and their children and that she had been responsible for their feeding and school fees.
“Anytime I asked him for the children’s school fees, he always told me that they should go and learn a trade and that he is not ready to train them in school.
“I singlehandedly paid our first daughter’s WAEC fee, he refused to contribute,” she said.
She however made a fervent plea to the court not to dissolve their marriage since she was still in love with her husband.
“Please, help me beg my husband not to divorce me, I will make amend in correcting the children over any wrong doing,” she said.
The court president, Mr Adegboyega Omilola adjourned the case to June 6, for further hearing.
