A 37-year-old evangelist on Thursday pleaded with her husband to break their blood covenant to pave the way for the dissolution of their marriage.
Christiana Adebileje told an Agege Customary Court,
Lagos, how she swore to a covenant with her husband, Taiwo Adebileje, many years ago, out of naivety.
Christiana lamented that Adebileje had been taking advantage of the covenant which forbode her from divorcing him, but at the same time permitted him to have concubines.
“We made the covenant when we were in secondary school. I did not fully understand the implication. He has been having sexual affairs with many women on the grounds that I have no right to complain.
“He threatens my life. He has told me several times that I will die if I leave him for another man,” said the female evangelist.
Christiana said she had broken her own part of the covenant with the help of her uncle, who is a pastor, but added that all efforts to make him renounce his own part of the covenant had proved abortive.
“I have gone for deliverance; I am no longer bound by the evil covenant. I no longer want to be his wife. All he cares about are his concubines.
“He does not take care of me and our son. I want to move on with my life,” Adebileje said.
Responding to his wife’s allegations, the 43-year-old generator mechanic told the court that he loved his wife and was not ready to divorce her.
He said the blood covenant he made with Adebileje was born out of his undying love for her, stating that his concubines were not important to him.
“I am not ready to divorce my wife because I cannot live without her. The herbalist, who conducted our blood covenant, told me that only death should separate us,” he said.
Adebileje told the court that he had been avoiding his wife’s uncle and other pastors because he believed it was a waste of time.
He pleaded with the court not to dissolve the marriage because he was not ready to release his wife to any other man.
“My wife is only deceiving herself by thinking she is free from our covenant because the herbalist told me that it has no remedy. The herbalist made incisions on our private body parts. We licked each other’s blood. Our covenant is still very potent.
“She is only filing for this divorce because she has an affair with her church pastor whom she has been cooking for. I refuse to let her go. She is bound to me,” he said.
In his own remark, Babatunde Shokunle, the court president, advised young people against ‘forever relationship’.
He said that the covenant sworn by the estranged couple was a hasty and foolish decision.
He advised other youths to desist from the act and put their trust in God to give them the best spouse and make their marriage work.
The case was adjourned till Dec. 13 for further hearing.