by Chi Ibe

A woman has asked the Agege Customary Court in Lagos State, to end her six-year union to her husband for alleged infecting her with a Sexually Transmitted Disease and assaulting her.

Olusola Gbediga said her husband, Matthew Gbediga beats her regularly and that he no longer loves her. She said they had been battling other irreconcilable issues but his adulterous lifestyle had given her an STD.

She told the court that she discovered her husband had known he was infected for three months but didn’t tell her. He even persuaded her that they should have another child.

“His pastor and the wife knew about the infection that my husband had but they kept it away from me. They were treating it secretly for those three months,” the mother of one told the court.

Olusola said although they had been together for about six years, no official marriage rites were done.

According to reports, Gbediga denied all the allegations saying they were lies and in fact he got the STD from his wife because she once received treatment for the disease, she claimed was a toilet disease.

“My mechanic usually tells me that my wife sleeps around, but I never believed it until I went to the hospital to treat malaria and after several tests I was diagnosed with an STD.

“When I asked my wife about it, she denied it. As a Christian, I can’t do such a thing because I go about preaching the gospel,” he said.

To support his argument, Gbediga told the court of a time his wife said that she was going to attend a child christening in Lagos but he discovered later that she went to Ogun State instead claiming that the venue of the ceremony had been changed.

“My wife came home at 12 am, leaving our child at home. She came and was knocking at the door and shouting; I opened the door for her, I requested to know why she came back so late, but she shouted at me,”

Presiding over the case, Emmanuel Sokunle, ordered the couple to bring their marriage certificate on February 25, 2013 when the matter is re-addressed.