By Ayoola Olasupo
Comedian and skit maker, Ganiyu Morufu, popularly known as Ijoba Lande, shares with AYOOLA OLASUPO the reasons he accused his estranged wife of infidelity and how their marriage deteriorated over time.
Can you tell us about yourself?
My name is Ganiyu Kehinde Morufu. I’m from Osogbo in Osun State, but I grew up in Ilesha. I was a vulcanizer when I was in Ilesha. When someone has not yet reached where he or she is destined to be, that person will continue hustling. So, I went to Port Harcourt, where I worked as a lottery agent. Some things happened there, and in 2010, I had to travel to Mowe-Ibafo in Ogun State to start a career in acting.
While I was learning acting there at that time, it wasn’t easy as a man to be in the limelight, especially if one isn’t rich. At that time, filmmakers were not using me. They would say I didn’t know how to act. So, I decided to hustle more. I had experience as a security guard in Ilesha, and I joined a vigilance group in Mowe, working with them for two to three years.
I then used the money I made from there to produce my first movie, which I titled Ijoba Lande. I came up with that name when I was doing the vigilante job. There was a police post at Ofada, which is now a police station, but they didn’t have enough officers. So, I was working with them as one of the security guards.
People had been calling me Lande even before I left Ilesha. There was a day I beat a little girl, and she called me ‘Lande lande ori’ (big head). When she said that, I kept beating her, and she kept repeating the same thing. That’s how people started calling me Lande. Whenever they did that, I was always angry. When I got to Mowe, people started calling me Ijoba because of the security job I was doing. So, that inspired the title of my first movie, Ijoba Lande.
How long have you been with your wife?
I’ve been with my wife since November 2022.
How many children does she have for you?
She has only one child for me; a boy, but she had two other children for someone else before I married her. She gave birth to my son on November 5, 2023.
What attributes did you see in your wife before marrying her?
Before I married her, I saw her as a good person, and from there, we tried to observe each other for a while before we later decided to marry each other. I never knew someone could pretend the way she did. I didn’t see her as having any bad character. I saw her as a beautiful and good lady then.
How many months or years of courtship did you have with her before marrying her?
I think our courtship lasted not more than six to seven months before I married her. I met her in 2022 and got married to her that same year.
When did you start suspecting your wife of infidelity?
To be sincere, I never suspected her of such at first. When people said bad things about her, I used to swear that such could never happen. So, I never suspected her until December 2, 2024. If I had been smart enough or not love-blinded, I should have observed her character between June and July 2024, because that was when we stopped having sexual intimacy as husband and wife.
Why did you stop having sexual intimacy with her?
I went through a lot some years ago and I was depressed. She would always say that she was even more depressed than me. She would tell me that her hormones were giving her a very low libido. So, whenever she said that, I would always believe her, being my wife. I even tried to buy things to improve her libido, but she would say nothing was wrong with her and she would always complain of low libido. I didn’t know she was lying to me all this while.
What early signs did you say you ought to have noticed around July 2024?
I should have suspected her when she prevented me from having sexual intercourse with her. I should have known that she was already seeing someone else outside the marriage because when a woman has started trying all means to make sure her husband doesn’t touch her, something must be fishy. But I wasn’t thinking in that direction at all because I was plain with her.
What evidence do you have against her?
I cannot tell you until she comes online to say I am lying. I can prove my accusations against her. You know that it’s not easy for me to come out and say all of those negative things about someone who has a child for me. In fact, it didn’t occur to me to say it, and I am not happy saying it to the public, but I don’t want to lose my life. That’s why I spoke out. Before I could make such a big allegation, you know it would be a very big case for me. So, I needed to hold on to something to back it up.
Can you clarify why you said you don’t want to lose your life?
I said I didn’t want to lose my life because I have evidence; pictures and videos.
Did you catch her red-handed with someone else?
How I caught them was that someone hinted me in December, but I didn’t believe it. I wanted to confirm it. So, I contracted someone who did something to her phone that allowed me to track whatever she was doing with her phone. I used that to monitor her. I was tracking her phone, and whenever she switched on her mobile data, I would see everything on her phone. I never did that to her in four years until December last year when I started suspecting her.
What last incident prompted you to call her out online?
She left my house on January 2, 2025.
Why did she leave your house?
We were doing a group contribution, and she was the admin. One of her friends, who was my manager, did not pay her contribution on time, and my wife tried to fight her. I urged her not to because the other lady always kept her money with me. I told my wife that paying the contribution would be difficult for someone who keeps money with me often, and maybe the person didn’t have the money at that time.
I told her, ‘Na me wan collect the contribution that November.’ So, she should hold on. I told my wife that the other lady would pay whenever she had the money. The same thing happened again when another person was about to receive the contribution, but my wife’s attitude had changed towards me in the house since that July.
I didn’t realise in time that she was only trying to do some things to incite my anger. She wanted me to fight her so that she would have an excuse to leave my house. That was why when my people came to my house and saw the way she behaved to me, they saw me as ‘mugu or didinrin’ (gullible or foolish). That was because whatever she did, I would always behave as if she was right. But I didn’t want her to go.
What happened after her attitude changed?
She left my house in January; she left with my baby. I told my family, and they said I should go to her mother’s house, and when I got there, her mum didn’t even bother to ask about what happened between us. She just carried the baby and gave him to me. That’s how I left their house. But I noticed that the day she left my house, she dropped my baby off with her mum before she went to meet another man. Before she left, she took the money I received from my contribution and lent it to the same man.
There is this Divisional Police Officer who really likes me, and because of that, the DPO likes her too. So, when they saw my video interview online, the woman called me. When I got there, I met her (estranged wife) and she didn’t even bother to greet me. The DPO asked if she didn’t see me. Then she started saying all sorts of things to the DPO. The woman asked what our problem was about, and I explained everything to her.
Did your wife show any remorse after that?
My wife was not remorseful and was even telling the DPO that we were not married. I was surprised when I heard that, up to the extent that the DPO was also angry that she made such a statement. My wife was even cursing me in front of that DPO. So, about 30 minutes after I was going back home from the DPO’s office, the man whom my wife was going out with then sent me a threatening message saying, ‘If I no wan die, make I no put him name for the matter. Shebi na my wife fall in love with big boy.’
The man said I should go and look for money and stop talking about him. I also have the guy’s contact and it’s a foreign number. I have blocked him, so I can’t see his status. People screenshot what he posted on his WhatsApp status and showed me.
He said, ‘He no dey forget and hin go murder anybody wey do am bad thing.’ He snatched my wife and was still threatening me. His number on my phone and the one people showed me both correlated. It was that thing that made me speak out before anybody kills me. I didn’t know that my wife did not love me. She left because she realised that I was no longer rich like before. When she left, I had only N7,000 left in my bank account.
Have you confronted your wife before and what was her reaction?
Yes, sometimes I would wake her up in the middle of the night to ask about what was going on, but she would assure me that nothing was wrong. She would even curse herself whenever I asked if she was seeing someone else. My wife would vow that since she married me, she had never had any extra-marital affairs. Those things made me believe her.
Do you have any doubts about the paternity of your son?
To be sincere, I can’t say for now, but I will later do it. The boy really resembles me. I love him and he loves me so much too. But with the evidence that I have, what her friends told me about her and her promiscuity, it’s only a DNA test that can tell the truth. In about two or three months, I’ll get the DNA test done.
Have both families intervened in the matter?
Before the issue escalated, all my family members; my dad, elder and younger brothers, called her. They made efforts, but she did not respond, so that was why my dad said I should go to her mother’s place.
Don’t you think you did something to her in the past that caused her to change her attitude?
I can say it boldly that I had never reported her to her parents before, and she had never reported me either. We’ve never fought to the extent that she would angrily leave my house for a whole day since the day we got married. That has never happened before. It’s not as if she changed, actually.
I think she had been promiscuous since I married her, but I didn’t know until now that I was made to understand the situation. I was able to confirm that, especially now that I am no longer financially buoyant like before. It was even some of her friends who told me about her infidelity, and I have a lot of evidence to that.
You are now separated and not legally divorced. Do you plan to seek divorce?
The reason why I didn’t take any legal steps was that we had a traditional wedding. We didn’t do a court wedding because nobody has ever done that kind of wedding in my family before. She had been disturbing me about that for more than two years, but I refused because I don’t like it and I don’t understand.
Will you forgive your wife if she repents?
Sincerely, God is the forgiver of all sins. I’ve forgiven her for everything she did to me, and I’ve left everything for God to judge so that I can also receive God’s forgiveness. But for her to come back to my house, that can never happen.
Who is your child staying with now?
He’s staying with me.
Do you see the matter as a blessing in disguise?
Yes, I see the issue as a blessing in disguise. I know that I am a glorious child, and when I started acting, my glory started shining little by little, and people loved me until I got married and everything turned upside down. Now that we are no longer together, things have started changing for the better again. I was also pained that she left, but I’m just happy that she made me know on time.
