A 38-year-old woman, Amudalat Agboola, whose husband on Thursday approached a Lagos Island Customary Court for the dissolution of their five-year marriage, has described her husband as a “gold digger.”
Amudalat said she married her current husband after the death of her first husband.
The new husband had posed as a magistrate, she said, promising to help her secure her late husband’s possessions from her grasping former in-laws if she could marry him.
She said she consented to his marriage proposal on the strength of that promise. Things did not work out between them, however, as she soon discovered that her new husband is not a magistrate, while he also had two other wives, instead of only one as he told her.
Amudalat, who said she once owned a boutique but now sells illicit alcoholic drinks popularly called paraga, told the court that her new husband had stripped her of her possessions and wanted to abandon her.
“I now sell paraga in the same shop I used to sell clothes bought from Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” she said.
Continuing, Amudalat said, “My husband lied to me that he was a magistrate, but I only got to know that he was a mere court registrar when he brought me to this court for dissolution.
“I met Agboola in 2010. He was the Community Development Association Chairman of Magboro Village in Mowe, where my late husband and I built our four-bedroom flat.
“He was a part of the four-man delegate sent by the village to pay me condolence visit when my husband died.
“My late husband, Adulhakeem Aderoju and I met and got married in Saudi Arabia, where I was selling clothes and he was washing cars.
“We hustled together to buy landed property here in Nigeria. I later relocated here with our two daughters to establish my boutique business while he continued to stay in Saudi.
“He got sick and returned to Nigeria and eventually died on October 4, 2010. That was when my nightmare started.
“My in-laws sold our two cars, and emptied the entire house while I was in the hospital with my husband. They also stole my gold jewelry and documents of our property.
“I only had the documents of the four-bedroom flat that we occupied. I was once kidnapped by hired assassins who threatened to kill me if I didn’t release the documents of that property, but I refused.
“To be safe, I locked the house and started staying with my friend at Igbosere. That was where I saw Agboola again at the Magistrates’ Court.
“He said he heard all that happened to me and that if I moved close to people like him, as a magistrate, he would help me regain all that my in-laws had taken from me.
“He persuaded me to go back to the house with my kids and said he would use the power of his office to deploy policemen around the premises to guard us.
“On several occasions that I visited him at Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, he would come downstairs to see me all suited up. Little did I know that he was a fraud.”
The beleaguered woman said she and Agboola became close, while he also promised to help her with the education of her two daughters.
She said she was kidnapped the second time by people who also requested for the documents of the house, but she managed to escape.
“When I got home and told Agboola, he said he could only help me if I married him. So, I agreed.
“My mother was not in support of our relationship because she didn’t trust him, but I persuaded her to give her blessings.
“He later told me that he was married and had four children. We got married on May 20, 2011, in Ilorin, my home town.
“Two days after the wedding, we came back to Lagos. He said he didn’t have the financial wherewithal to secure accommodation for me; so, he arranged to have me live with his friend.
“When I became pregnant, Agboola and I went to the house at Mowe to pack household goods such as two washing machines, plasma TV, gas cooker and generator. I never set my eyes on those items again, as Agboola took them away.
“He later secured a one-room apartment for me in Lagos Island at Oshodi Street. Somehow, he linked up with my late husband’s relations and he helped them to eventually take the four-bedroom property from me.
“Since I had his baby, he has never taken any responsibility, leaving me to cater for three young children. It turned out that he had two wives and I was the third.
“Agboola took advantage of my illiteracy and widowhood to dispossess me of all that I had,” Amudalat lamented.
She prayed the court to help her recover all the household goods that Agboola allegedly took from her, as well as her late husband’s property he allegedly conspired with her in-laws to take from her.
The estranged husband, Abdulrasheed-Olakunle Agboola, a court registrar at the Isolo Magistrates’ Court, said he sought the dissolution of the union because of the present economic recession.
Agboola, who did not deny all that his wife had said, said he could no longer cope with the responsibility and that lack of money was the cause of their problems.
He said he and Amudalat were incompatible and that she sent him a text message threatening him. He said he opted for dissolution of their marriage because of the stated reasons.
The Court President, Mr. Awos Awosola, noted that Agboola, who, as an employee of the Lagos State Judiciary, was in the best position to help the widow, but took advantage of her.
“You were in the best position to help her secure her late husband’s property from her in-laws by telling her how to go about it through the law, but you used her.
“You changed her story, such that a boutique owner became paraga seller. You took her from a four-bedroom apartment to a `face-me-I-face-you’.
“This case will still be referred to a higher court because it is a case of impersonation and fraud.
“Now that you have wrecked her, you want to abandon her and you blame it on recession,” Awosola said.
Awosola urged the two parties to maintain peace and adjourned the case to January 2017 for further hearing on the matter.
She said she consented to his marriage proposal on the strength of that promise. Things did not work out between them, however, as she soon discovered that her new husband is not a magistrate, while he also had two other wives, instead of only one as he told her.
Amudalat, who said she once owned a boutique but now sells illicit alcoholic drinks popularly called paraga, told the court that her new husband had stripped her of her possessions and wanted to abandon her.
“I now sell paraga in the same shop I used to sell clothes bought from Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” she said.
Continuing, Amudalat said, “My husband lied to me that he was a magistrate, but I only got to know that he was a mere court registrar when he brought me to this court for dissolution.
“I met Agboola in 2010. He was the Community Development Association Chairman of Magboro Village in Mowe, where my late husband and I built our four-bedroom flat.
“He was a part of the four-man delegate sent by the village to pay me condolence visit when my husband died.
“My late husband, Adulhakeem Aderoju and I met and got married in Saudi Arabia, where I was selling clothes and he was washing cars.
“We hustled together to buy landed property here in Nigeria. I later relocated here with our two daughters to establish my boutique business while he continued to stay in Saudi.
“He got sick and returned to Nigeria and eventually died on October 4, 2010. That was when my nightmare started.
“My in-laws sold our two cars, and emptied the entire house while I was in the hospital with my husband. They also stole my gold jewelry and documents of our property.
“I only had the documents of the four-bedroom flat that we occupied. I was once kidnapped by hired assassins who threatened to kill me if I didn’t release the documents of that property, but I refused.
“To be safe, I locked the house and started staying with my friend at Igbosere. That was where I saw Agboola again at the Magistrates’ Court.
“He said he heard all that happened to me and that if I moved close to people like him, as a magistrate, he would help me regain all that my in-laws had taken from me.
“He persuaded me to go back to the house with my kids and said he would use the power of his office to deploy policemen around the premises to guard us.
“On several occasions that I visited him at Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, he would come downstairs to see me all suited up. Little did I know that he was a fraud.”
The beleaguered woman said she and Agboola became close, while he also promised to help her with the education of her two daughters.
She said she was kidnapped the second time by people who also requested for the documents of the house, but she managed to escape.
“When I got home and told Agboola, he said he could only help me if I married him. So, I agreed.
“My mother was not in support of our relationship because she didn’t trust him, but I persuaded her to give her blessings.
“He later told me that he was married and had four children. We got married on May 20, 2011, in Ilorin, my home town.
“Two days after the wedding, we came back to Lagos. He said he didn’t have the financial wherewithal to secure accommodation for me; so, he arranged to have me live with his friend.
“When I became pregnant, Agboola and I went to the house at Mowe to pack household goods such as two washing machines, plasma TV, gas cooker and generator. I never set my eyes on those items again, as Agboola took them away.
“He later secured a one-room apartment for me in Lagos Island at Oshodi Street. Somehow, he linked up with my late husband’s relations and he helped them to eventually take the four-bedroom property from me.
“Since I had his baby, he has never taken any responsibility, leaving me to cater for three young children. It turned out that he had two wives and I was the third.
“Agboola took advantage of my illiteracy and widowhood to dispossess me of all that I had,” Amudalat lamented.
She prayed the court to help her recover all the household goods that Agboola allegedly took from her, as well as her late husband’s property he allegedly conspired with her in-laws to take from her.
The estranged husband, Abdulrasheed-Olakunle Agboola, a court registrar at the Isolo Magistrates’ Court, said he sought the dissolution of the union because of the present economic recession.
Agboola, who did not deny all that his wife had said, said he could no longer cope with the responsibility and that lack of money was the cause of their problems.
He said he and Amudalat were incompatible and that she sent him a text message threatening him. He said he opted for dissolution of their marriage because of the stated reasons.
The Court President, Mr. Awos Awosola, noted that Agboola, who, as an employee of the Lagos State Judiciary, was in the best position to help the widow, but took advantage of her.
“You were in the best position to help her secure her late husband’s property from her in-laws by telling her how to go about it through the law, but you used her.
“You changed her story, such that a boutique owner became paraga seller. You took her from a four-bedroom apartment to a `face-me-I-face-you’.
“This case will still be referred to a higher court because it is a case of impersonation and fraud.
“Now that you have wrecked her, you want to abandon her and you blame it on recession,” Awosola said.
Awosola urged the two parties to maintain peace and adjourned the case to January 2017 for further hearing on the matter.
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