I Won't Divorce My Husband Again, My Son Said It Is Disgrace To Our Family

There was drama at the Ketu customary court recently when a 53yrs old woman, Ethel Amagala, who had earlier approached the court for dissolution of her marriage with her husband Emmanuel Amagala, 60, stormed the court in anger after she saw report of their divorce case in a newspaper.

Mrs Amagala, whose grown up children had last week gone to the court to discontinue the case, cried out that her husband too was not happy that his wife allowed their private matter get to their media.

She said: “The children want the case discontinued as it is causing serious embarrassment to the family. They said they would find a way to bring peace into the family.”

What actually happened? The wife had on the November 12, 2015, approached the court for a divorce with her estranged husband who she said took a new younger wife. She sought divorce on the grounds of abandonment and lack of love. She had said, “My husband constantly tells me I’m old.”

Narrating how she met her husband 27 years ago, she said: “When he was studying at the Teachers’ Institute in Bayelsa, he did not have money to take care of the family; I was frying and selling chips in Bayelsa and even borrowed money for his studies.”

When we had our first child, it was my elder sister who paid for hospital bill and took care of me and the baby for three months. The situation remained same until 1991 when he took up an appointment with the NNPC, as a manager. Now, he decided to marry a younger woman, because “I am old.”

She also told the court that sometimes her husband beats her.

In his reaction, the husband, Mr Emmanuel Amagala denied his wife's allegation of assault but told the court that he abandoned the house he built and decided to live alone in a rented apartment because of his wife's incessant nagging attitude which he described as very unbearable. 

After listening to both the wife and her husband, President of the court, O. T. William, advised the couple to go home and make their marriage work in the interest of their children.