Veteran Nollywood actor Emeka Ike has narrated how his estranged wife Suzanne Emma’s allegations made him lose his properties and access to his kids.
Newsmen recalls that a Lagos Island Customary Court in 2017 dissolved the marriage between Emeka Ike and his wife over incessant battery.
Emma had on July 13, 2015, approached the court to dissolve the 14-year-old marriage between her and the Nollywood actor.
The marriage produced four children.
While featuring as a guest on Channels Television programme Rubbin’ Minds, hosted by Hero Daniels, Ike said his ex-wife’s assault allegations made him lose properties worth millions of naira.
He said he did not come out to clear the air over the domestic violence allegations against him because the people “bullying” him were on social media.
Ike said, “I didn’t come on the internet space to clarify the allegations against me because it’s difficult to clarify because the same people that were bullying me on the internet, they were still there. They are gonna say, ‘Don’t mind him. He is still missing her. Move on.’
“And if you’re not prepared to handle it, you will be crushed. My secondary school, St. Nicholas College, on CMD road, Magodo, was shut down. Over N480 million investment that year was shut down. And all I heard was constant battery. I was like, ‘I don’t beat this lady. What’s going on? Babe, what’s going on? They said I beat you, do I?’
“And she [my ex-wife] said, ‘No. But you’re a star, you know, they can always manipulate things and all that.’ So, I was gullible until I discovered that she was actually the one behind all this whole thing. Some ladies are too desperate for marriage legally. And she actually told me one time that I am not the marriage type. And I didn’t understand it. So, the young men need to know that there are plenty ladies that are not the marriage type lately.”
He said he sponsored his ex-wife’s higher education but didn’t know that he wasn’t “loved in return.”
The thespian said he and his family members begged his ex-wife not to divorce him, but she was adamant.
“She [my ex-wife] went to divorce herself. She said, ‘Judge, please, divorce me, I want to go.’ I said, ‘Kilode? Where are you going?’ I was on my knees. Felix Duke was on his knees. My sisters were on their knees in court. Even the people that came with my ex-wife to court were on their knees. They said, ‘Are you okay? What’s wrong with you?’ We didn’t understand what was going on in her psychology,” he recalled.
Ike said he believed his ex-wife was blackmailed by some “gunmen” she was involved with into divorcing him.