We’re Being Battered, Wives Of Osun Retired Judge Cry Out For Help

WIVES of a retired judge of the Osun State High Court, Justice Abdulkareem Babatunde Abdulrasaq, have accused him of constantly assaulting them.

The assault, according to the wives, have left varying degrees of injuries on their body.

The two estranged wives, Mrs. Sherifat Oyekunle and Alhaja Afusat Egberongbe, alleged that the 70-year-old former judge battered them at any slight provocation and eventually sent them out of his house in Oyan, Odo-Otin Local Government Area of the state, without allowing them to take their belongings.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the National Judicial Council had, in December, 2020, recommended compulsory retirement for Abdulrasaq for allegedly falsifying his age.

According to his estranged wives, the former judge used horsewhip, otherwise known as “koboko” to flog them severally and also bit one of them with his teeth.

They claimed that Abdulrasaq had denied them access to their children, including a seven-year-old sickle cell patient.

Meanwhile, a human rights activist, Citizen Lola Wey and the Internation                                                                                          al Federation of Women Lawyers, have intervened and called on the retired judge to release the women’s belongings to them and allow them to give necessary care and attention to their children.

FIDA, in a letter signed by its Vice-Chairperson in the state, Mrs Adeseyi Darlington, and made available to OSUN DEFENDER on Tuesday, alleged that Abdulrasaq had relegated the welfare and education of his estranged wives’ six children to the background.

The association noted that the children of the two women who were in the custody of the former jurist, had not been able to feed well or have quality education.

The letter reads in part: “It is our brief that our clients (Mrs. Sherifat Oyekunle and Alhaja Afusat Egberongbe) used to be married to Rtd. Justice Abdulrasaq Abdulkareem and their union was blessed with children. 

“However, their marriage to this jurist was characterised with oppression, victimisation and series of unprintable abuses that almost claimed their lives. The jurist was in the habit of assaulting and subjecting them to series of domestic violence which was not limited to caning them with caning sticks (koboko) before their children, biting, etc. 

“The recurrence of these inhuman acts resulted into separation between our clients and the retired jurist as they had to run for their precious lives.

“As if that was not enough, the retired jurist claimed full and complete custody of our clients’ children without giving them access into the house to pack their belongings and denying them complete access to their children. 

“He has succeeded in exposing them to the torments of being completely severed from their own children, while leaving the children to crave endlessly for the warmth and love of their mothers. Apart from the five children of our client, the jurist has six other children (totaling eleven children) in the house which he took from their mothers.

“It is our brief that the welfare of these children is being jeopardised by the retired jurist who placed little or no premium on their education, feeding and general welfare, as the condition of these children as at the time of writing this letter is highly devastating. 

“For instance, the retired jurist did not allow the children of our client i.e Egberongbe to go to school after the commencement of the new academic year in September 2023, until the petition dated 10th October, 2023 was written to him and copied to some relevant parastatals. 

“Also, the minor children of Mrs. Sherifat Oyekunle, aged nine, seven and five are also in his custody with little or no care whatsoever.

“It is our brief that several attempts made by our clients to make them have access to their children have proved abortive as the Rtd. Jurist has always claimed to be above any Family Court or institution that invites him to discuss the welfare of his children,” FIDA stated.

Speaking with Journalists, one of the affected women, Sherifat Oyekunle, alleged that Abdulrasaq had banished her from Oyan community and warned her against returning to get her belongings and check her children.