July 13, (THEWILL) – Veteran Nigerian actress, Binta Ayo Mogaji, has opened up about the abuse she endured in her marriage.
Mogaji was previously romantically involved with Jibola Dabo, another veteran Nigerian actor, and had a son from that relationship.
She later married Victor Ayodele Oduleye, a retired footballer and physiotherapist, in 2006.
The actress said she was in love with Oduleye but their relationship quickly turned abusive. She recounted how she would often sit outside their home until someone else arrived to avoid being abused.
The actress added that she endured this situation for thirteen years before separating from her husband four years ago.
“We fell in love with each other but any little thing, ‘igbaju igbamu ni Keri Keri ma nba ro de ni’, she said in Yoruba language.
“Even in England, the abusive language, the physical abuse, the mental torture when it gets too much, I will advise anybody to get out of that marriage.
“When it is only me and him in the home, I will go outside the compound and sit down till somebody will come so that I will not be abused. We were in it for like thirteen years and we have been separated for four years now,” she said.
She also recalled her experience during the birth of her first child, revealing that one of her fallopian tubes was removed during the pregnancy of her child with Jibola.
The 60-year-old film star said the doctor notified her of her chances of survival prior to the surgery. Mogaji said she eventually gave birth to her child naturally, six weeks after her 40th birthday.
“I got pregnant. Unfortunately enough, the pregnancy was ectopic. It stayed right inside the fallopian tube. They took me to like seven hospitals. They gave me the bed and the man said I am not sure you can survive till tomorrow. The operation took them like seven to nine hours.
“The following day, Ngozi Nwosu had cried her eyes out…. Sola Sobowale, Sam Loco, Jide Kosoko, everybody was at the hospital. They had to remove one fallopian tube. I am living with one and I had my child through natural birth.
“I stopped looking for a husband, I wanted to have a baby. If I do not have a baby until I am 40 then I will adopt a child… Jibola came around the time shortly before I was 40. I had my baby six weeks after I became 40 years old.”
