‘My wife is so smelly, dirty I can’t sleep with her’ - Husband tells court

A 55-year-old man, Elder Moses Ajuwa, has told a divorce court that his wife's body odour has made it impossible for him to continue sleeping with her and wanted the court to dissolve his three-year-old marriage to his 30-year-old wife, Hauwa, on that account.

Apart from the smelly body odour, Elder Ajuwa also told the Grade A Customary Court sitting in Lagos State that his wife is also lazy and has failed to fulfil her obligations as a married woman and a disgrace to womanhood.

“I do not know why I must continue with this marriage. My so called wife can’t cook or keep the home. She’s so lazy and dirty I can’t even sleep with her; the only thing she knows is to dress up and go to parties. I want a divorce.

I can’t continue with this marriage; it is better to be a bachelor than stay married to this excuse of a woman. She has failed at being a woman. I married her so she could take care of me after my first wife died; this is the worst mistake I ever made.

She can’t keep the home or cook. Every corner of our house stinks and unless I sweep, she doesn’t. Our rooms are filled with dirty laundry and I had to take my two children from my late wife to her family for proper care because I don’t want them in her care because she will turn them to slaves.

She is so dirty that I can’t even sleep with her; I buy food because our kitchen is too dirty to cook. Anytime I clean it up, she messes the house up again. 

She never stays at home, once she gets one clean cloth and can dig her makeup out of the dung-hill she created in the room and a corner of the sitting room, she’s off. She rarely takes her bath. I have tried my best to make her change without success. Please separate us,” Elder Ajuwa told the court.

His wife, however, all the allegations levelled against her. In her defence, she told the court that her husband does not like her going out and is too autocratic.

“I am a small girl and he wants me to dress like an old woman. That I’m married doesn’t mean I should act like a dead woman. I want my marriage to work but my husband needs to relax his stance.

His other allegation is in bad faith because I have told him that the house is too big for me alone to maintain.”

The court has given the couple two months to see if they can resolve their issues and adjourned the case.