Extra: 5000 Divorce Cases Filed In FCT In two Months; Husband Stabbings To The Rescue

By Uche Mbah

With between 4,000 and 5,000 divorce cases filed in Abuja Courts this year alone the Marriage crisis has reached epidermic levels-and women are taking to daggers to save themselves from long legal battles. The result? More court cases over couple murders.

Most of these Marriages are said to be less than two years old.

In recent times, social media has been awash with reports of wives stabbing their husbands-and in most cases killing them-over infidelity issues. In fact, just last month, a 25 year old lady, Ruth Anthony, told an Abuja court to dissolve their marriage to prevent her from killing him.

“There was a time he was beating me and I ran to the kitchen and carry (sic) knife. I almost stab him in the stomach but I changed my mind and stabbed his hand but despite that he continues beating me everyday”, she said.

“I want this court to separate our marriage before I take his life when defending myself one day”.

This may not be an empty threat. Only recently, Miriam Sanders, wife to the son of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband. On hearing the sentence in a case that has become a celebrity murder case, Miriam, in confusion, attempted to run out of the court but was apprehended. She had since appealed her sentence.

Sanders is just one of the many cases appearing on the Nigerian judicial horizon of recent. Sources close to the Lagos state High court indicate that over a hundred divorce cases are being entertained everyday, with the court doing its best to de-congest by setting arbitration panels to try to reconcile the couples. Reports of women stabbing their husbands have become so rampant that it is common to hear of a new case every week.

What must be the cause? Many of the cases are said to be caused by women peeping into the phone logs in their husband phones.

Many men are known to indulge in extra marital affairs as a matter of course, and, for some, as part of their perk of office as high executives in blue chip companies.

But the most rampant now are infidelity of house wives, who are said to be victims of boredom. And indications are that those who are viciously reacting to their husbands having extra marital affairs-generally called side chics-were side chics themselves during their spinster days. They are therefore jealously guarding their properties from their former colleagues in crime.

It has been alleged that if DNA teats are done on most urban families, it will be discovered that many men are not the fathers of the children born by their wives. Recently, reports have shown that a man discovered that none of his three children belong to him.

Discussions on marital crisis have dominated the social media but unfortunately it has been doing more harm than good. Recently, a newly married lady declared that the best way to kill a husband was to tamper with his car breaks if he becomes unfaithful. News of the post somehow reached the husband and today, they are separated.