CITIZENS COMPASS— A Benin High Court in Edo State yesterday dissolved the 12-year-old marriage of a popular broadcaster, Best Mbiere with her husband, Michael Mbiere.
The broadcaster said she walked away from the marriage to protect her mental health after years of alleged infidelity, bigamy, and financial betrayal.
According to her, “For me, it’s a misfeeling because I never thought of going into marriage, it’s going to end today and it was never my making,” Best told reporters outside the court. “I really tried to build my home, hold my home but it’s unfortunate that, like they say, it takes two to tango.
“This is a very perfect opportunity for me to clear my name because they spared my name, they’ve tarnished my image over the last three years.
“Now, it might interest you to know that I endured begging for two years. I endured adultery for over nine years,” she said. “Under the same roof we were, he got married to somebody from his tribe and everybody expected me to stay.
“In fact, I endured in the house for two solid years. This man never ate my food. For two solid years, we never lay on the same bed but I would get up in the morning and still brace up.
“It got to a point where I said this was becoming too much.
“The whole family teamed up with him, went to the east, got an Igbo woman for him. As I speak to you, they have two children together and I said I cannot continue. I have to go to the courts.
“In 2018, this man defeated Intercontinental Distillers… without knowing what he did with the money. He was arrested.
“The day he was about to be caught, I was in the hospital. I just gave birth to my daughter through CS. He came that evening and he said people were running after him.
“Immediately we got there, they handcuffed him. They took him to state command. It was later I got to know that he had degraded the company 44 million Naira that I didn’t know what he did with the money.
“After his release, Best said she pushed him to start afresh because he was not literate and had been blacklisted by his former employers.
“I said what do you do now? The burden is too much for me to be caring for you, for your mother, your father and my children,” she recalled.
“He went there. He learned. I followed him to the Onitsha market where we bought our first goods, seven million and then we continued like that.
“Do you know the shocking thing? Those same goods we bought were the same thing he was giving to his concubine and his girlfriends. I caught him.”
