David Erhabor, husband of a
former commissioner in Edo State, Florence Igbinigie-Erhabor, on Wednesday,
told a Benin High Court, that his wife of 15 years once came home without
putting on pant.
He said, “There was a day she came
back home drunk and without a pant on her. She was in the habit of keeping late
nights.”
David while testifying in a divorce
suit, No HAB/16D/2011, instituted by his wife, a former Commissioner for Women
Affairs, under Chief Lucky Igbinedion, told the court he did not envisage a
broken home in his life.
The respondent said trouble started
after his wife was appointed commissioner, after which he said she began
keeping late nights.
David, an ex-Senior Adviser to
former Governor Oswerhiemen Osunbor, told the court that there was a time the
wife abandoned their two children, absconded from home for three days, “only to
be caught red-handed inside a vehicle, romancing and kissing a man who had
earlier gassed him.”
David recalled that it took the
intervention of a former chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Community
Development Commission, Chief Wellington Okrika, to resolve some of their
matrimonial crises.
He also said his wife had once
demanded N1m from him before she could allow him to have sex with her,
adding that on another occasion, he ran from home when he sensed that his wife
was planning to send hired assassins after him.
On the custody of their children,
David said they could always stay with whoever they chose when on holidays.
Florence among other prayers is
asking the court to grant her divorce on the grounds of threat to life, violent
assault and infidelity on the part of her husband.
The former commissioner, who has
since 2009 separated from her husband, is demanding that she should be paid
N150, 000 as monthly upkeep for each of their children. She also wants Erhabor
to be compelled to pay the children’s school fees.
While being crossed-examined by
David’s lawyer, Mr. Akakhomen Austine, Florence said her husband had at a time
squeezed the children inside a vehicle and threatened to set them ablaze. She
said it took the intervention of members of both families to broker peace.
The former commissioner said she had
been solely responsible for the children’s upkeep, including payment of their
school fees over the past years.
She added that the children had been
living in her family house where she relocated to when she suspected that her
husband was after her life.
She also accused David of having
extra-marital affair with their housemaid.
Justice
Anthony Erhabor adjourned the case till August 4 for further hearing