…says I spent my N2m retrenchment benefits on her, now she’s taken my belongings, only son away
For 40-year-old Kolawole Aderibigbe, a former staff of a popular beverage company based in Lagos, trusting any woman again would be a difficult pill to swallow, especially following his ordeal in the hands of his now estranged wife.
Aderibigbe, who expressed bitterness over his marriage which lasted five years with 32-year-old Funke Aderibigbe, will not stop cursing the day the two of them met for the first time.
Funke not only betrayed Aderibigbe by getting pregnant for a neighbour while he was away toiling to fend for her and their only child, she also ensured that he was punished for raising eyebrows over the shocking development, upon his return.
My wife slept with another man, got impregnated and she told me to my face that I was not responsible. And this is a woman I gave all my love and resources. I spent all of my N2 million retrenchment money to stock that shop, which I rented for, with goods. I would have been dead, if not for the support of some of my friends who stood by me
Aderibigbe is now a victim of emotional and psychological trauma, which he suffered due to his wife’s alleged infidelity and betrayal.
While their marriage lasted, the couple lived together at Molato Street, Itaoluwo, Ajegunle in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Aderibigbe, it was learnt, had financially empowered his wife with the N2million retrenchment benefits paid him by his former employers, when he was sacked six months ago, by setting up a store for her, which he stocked with various goods.
A crisis, however, hit Aderibigbe’s marriage when he began to learn how to drive trailers, following his retrenchment by his former employers.
Aderibigbe, according to a neighbour, who pleaded anonymity, “did not want to stay idle; hence, he decided to go into something else in order to be financially stable so that he could maintain his status as a responsible father and husband.”
However, this attempt of his to get a new job, and which often took him away from home for weeks, created a crack in his marriage.
And three months into Aderibigbe’s efforts to acquire trailer-driving skills, his wife was impregnated by another man!
It was not established if his wife had been having the illicit affair with the man alleged to be responsible for her pregnancy before Aderibigbe decided to go into his new engagement of trailer-driving.
Although the identity of the man responsible for her pregnancy was not disclosed by Funke, neighbours alleged that it was one Makinwa, another neighbour.
They further alleged that both Funke and 59-year-old Makinwa were usually seen together whenever Aderibigbe was not around. Makinwa, who was also said to be close to the couple, was said to be taken by Aderibigbe as his mentor and elder brother.
Aderibigbe, our correspondent learnt, began to suspect his wife when, upon his return home from his travels, she bluntly refused to allow him to sleep with her.
After she could no longer endure her husband’s persistent demand for sex with her, Funke opened up and confessed that she was pregnant, but that Aderibigbe was not responsible for her pregnancy!
Shocked, Aderibigbe at first thought he did not hear her aright! Feelings of betrayal and dejection immediately came rushing at him and overwhelmed him.
“My wife slept with another man, got impregnated and she told me to my face that I was not responsible. And this is a woman I gave all my love and resources,” dejected Aderibigbe told our correspondent in an emotion-laden voice.
Our correspondent gathered that following a scuffle that ensued between the couple over the development, Funke, in connivance with another neighbour, got the police at Ikorodu to arrest and detain her husband for two days.
While Aderibigbe languished in police detention cell, Funke also allegedly perfected her plans to abandon her matrimonial home for an unknown destination.
But before she absconded to an undisclosed location, Funke reportedly cleared out her store, which her husband spent his N2million retrenchment benefits to stock, and also took away other valuables and belongings from her matrimonial home.
Aderibigbe, who was close to tears, said regretfully, “The most surprising thing is that my wife got me arrested by the police, who locked me up in their cell, because we had a disagreement. She lied that I beat her. It was like a joke until I was arrested and detained at the police station for two days.
“The worst and most devastating thing was that before I came back from the police station the third day, my wife had packed away all the things in the house and the goods in the shop and took along our four-year-old son.
“I spent all of my N2 million retrenchment money to stock that shop, which I rented for, with goods. I would have been dead, if not for the support of some of my friends who stood by me.”
Aderibigbe added that due to the shock he suffered following the incident, he was admitted in a hospital as he almost had a heart attack.
“For over six weeks, I was in serious psychological and emotional trauma. I spent four days at the hospital to stabilise my BP, because it was very high. When I came back home, it was my friends that were supporting me. I almost died,” he said.
He noted that since his wife left him in February, he had not set his eyes on her, adding that her whereabouts were still not known.
“I have not seen her since then. She left with my kid and her line is not reachable,” he lamented.
When asked if he confronted Makinwa, the neighbour alleged to have impregnated his wife, he said, “I didn’t go to him and he didn’t come to me. But my friends confronted him and he shunned them. This is a man that is like a brother and a mentor to me. I can’t believe he could
do this.
“Although my wife did not say he was the one responsible for the pregnancy, but from what I see he (Makinwa) is responsible. People had been telling me that both of them had been going in and out whenever I was not around, but I didn’t believe them; now, their affair has finally been exposed.”
A friend of the victim, Ibrahim Balogun, said, “It was an unfortunate incident. Nobody could ever imagine this would happen to him. This is a man that is very hard working; a caring father and husband. The wife acted very badly. We didn’t believe also that egbon (Makinwa) could do this. When we approached him, he ignored us and said it was not his business.”
Corroborating him, another neighbour of the victim, simply identified as Akinola, said, “I can never trust any woman again in my life; women are evil. How can a woman, who was well taken care of, do this to her husband? He takes care of you, your child and family; yet you betrayed him so badly. Even egbon (Makinwa) does not have what Aderibigbe has. May be he (Makinwa) charmed her.
Confirming the development, Aderibigbe’s landlord, Mr. Kayode Ajayi, said, “I was not around when she (Aderibigbe’s wife) packed out of the house. It was when I came back that I was told by other tenants what had happened. They said both Kola and his wife fought and she arrested him. Later they saw her packing things out of the house. They tried to stop her but she shouted them down. That was how she left. If I were at home, I would not have allowed her. Kola is a strong man, if not, he would have died.”
Also, a female tenant, who did not want her name in print, said, “It was just a slight quarrel between the couple, only for the wife to come and arrest her husband with police. We thought it would be settled amicably, but for two days, we didn’t see the husband. It was the following day that the wife packed out. We tried to stop her, but she refused.”
Efforts by our correspondent to reach Aderibigbe’s wife was not successful as her whereabouts remained unknown and her mobile line still unreachable.
Also, when our correspondent visited Makinwa’s residence at 3, Fakeye Street in the area, he was not at home.
But when our correspondent contacted him on the phone for his reaction to the allegations against him, he became hostile.
He further denied the allegation, feigning ignorance and saying he did not know anything about our correspondent’s inquiries.
