Nigerian man, Shonibare, faces uncertainty in UK after his wife accused him of coercive behaviour

 

A Nigerian man, Lukman Shonibare, faces an uncertain future after his wife accused him of coercive behaviour in Manchester, United Kingdom (UK).

Shonibare is currently being tried for a one-count charge of ‘coercive and controlling behaviour’ at Manchester’s Crown Square Court.

His wife, Lyndsay, told the court her husband controlled every aspect of her life and would often shout at her and the children.

Mrs Shonibare also accused her husband of cutting her away from her friends and family.

She alleged that he told her he knew she smoked in his absence because of his spiritual powers, whereas he installed a hidden camera to monitor her in the home.

It seemed their problem arose from a bid by the husband to stop the wife from drinking, a bad habit that the wife mother allegedly died from.

During a trial at Manchester’s Crown Square Court, it was heard that Lukman Shonibare, 44, threatened to divorce his wife, Lyndsay, and made her sign and date a contract pledging never to ‘drink, smoke or lie’ in January 2020.

It was also heard that Mr Shonibare’s behaviour towards his wife became much worse after Mrs Shonibare’s grandfather, who lived with the couple, died in April 2020.

Speaking of her husband’s behaviour in June 2020, Mrs Shonibare said: ‘I just felt like I was in a torture chamber at that point.

‘I was trying to be a mother and I just felt mentally tortured daily.’

She was smoking on the balcony outside her apartment following her grandfather’s death while her husband was out, the jury heard.

And when he returned, he claimed he had seen her smoking with his spiritual powers, she said.

She later discovered that he was watching her using a camera which he had hidden in a boxing glove, the court was told.

Lyndsay told the jury her husband told her in 2020: ‘I’m spiritual and I can see these things. I know what you are doing.’

In a statement read by Roger Brown, prosecuting, she said: ‘He threatens me with spiritual power and that he’s higher than another human being.

‘It scares me because of spiritual powers in Africa.’

She added he would ‘drink holy water from Nigeria, but he would always be angry’.

Mr Shonibare married his wife in November 2015 and they had a son in 2016 and a second in 2019.

It was alleged that Mrs Shonibare was gradually isolated from her friends and family, at the request of her husband

Mr Shonibare also took his wife’s mobile phone and smashed it, the court heard

The embittered wife also told the court that her husband did not allow her to name her first son because he told her in Nigeria women don’t decide what their children are called.

She said she paid for a baby-naming ceremony to take place in Nigeria, despite wanting to help choose a name for her son.

In a statement read during day one of his trial, Lyndsay said he pinched and slapped her, telling her he was the ‘boss’.

In a statement, she told the jury he once pinched her over 20 times before splashing her face with water so that she couldn’t speak.

She added: ‘My body was really painful from being pushed and pinched.

‘He said he was the boss of me and splashed water in my face.

‘I was too scared of the consequences than following through with getting help.’

She told the court that she went for drinks with work colleagues in December 2014, before her husband reprimanded her for doing so.

‘He said to me that he wouldn’t marry someone like me if I didn’t change my behaviour,’ she told the court from a witness box, ‘and he didn’t want to marry someone who drinks or smokes.

‘I just apologised and said I won’t do it again.

‘It was easier to obey what he said than to go against what he said.’

Mr Shonibare also took his wife’s mobile phone and smashed it, the court heard.

She lost more than 13,000 photos of her children growing up and her late grandparents, the jury were told.

‘I lost everything’, said Lyndsay, ‘my phone was always monitored and he would take it out of the house and delete everything off it.

‘I couldn’t use the phone for myself.’

Police became involved in April 2021, but Mrs Shonibare did not report anything to them until Mr Shonibare had left the home, the jury were told.

In day two of the trial, March 21, Mrs Shonibare was cross-examined.

Defending, Steve Nikolich said: ‘He never stopped you from going to see any of your friends.’

To which she replied: ‘He said that they are all bad influences for me.’

Mr Nikolich questioned Mrs Shonibare’s relationship with alcohol, asking her whether her grandfather’s death had any effect on her drinking, to which she replied that it had no effect.

He said: ‘The altercation of pushing your head into a pillow is a fabrication to cover your drunken state.’

She replied saying this was untrue.

Mr Nikolich also said Mr Shonibare did not have access to Mrs Shonibare’s phone to which she replied: ‘He would take it out with him’.

Mr Nikolich showed Mrs Shonibare a series of photos in which they were on holiday at Disneyland Paris and commented that it looked like a happy time.

She replied that it was an ‘awful’ time.

Mr Shonibare has pleaded not guilty to one count of coercive and controlling behaviour.

The jury were played a video of him being interviewed by police during day three of his trial.

He said following his departure from his wife’s house in February 2021, he has been living in his car and with friends.

Speaking to a police officer in a video played to the court, he said: ‘The police have said that Lyndsay is an alcoholic.

He later said: ‘The mother died of drugs and alcohol and I have seen Lyndsay going down that path as well.’

He added: ‘She will never drink in front of me’.

Later, in the interview, he said he threw alcohol ‘down the toilet’ after Lyndsay ‘came back home with a bottle of alcohol and she said to me ‘let’s start having a drink’.’

He said that he would come home and find Lyndsay in bed, and say to her: ‘If you do not want [the kids], do not raise them. We have to do it together. I cannot raise the kids on my own’.

He said that he ‘had to pay for all the bills’, claiming ‘she never paid for them’.

He also said he told his wife: ‘I am not here for the money – I do not need the money.’

Mr Shonibare also told the interviewing officer he was now £10,000 in debt and added: ‘I cannot afford to rent a house at the moment.’

Responding to his reaction when he saw Lyndsay had a glass of wine on the balcony, Mr Shonibare said: ‘I didn’t call her disgusting – I said this disappointing for the family.’

He also said he believed she was being flirty with a friend of his on Facebook after she wished him ‘happy birthday’ and put ‘love signs there’.

Asked whether he shouts at his children, Mr Shonibare responded: ‘No parent would say I have never shouted at their kids. Sometimes I have to shout because they do not listen.’

The trial continues.