Media entrepreneur and journalist Best Mbiere broke her silence on Tuesday moments after a Benin High Court dissolved her 12-year marriage to Michael Mbiere, saying she walked away to protect her mental health after years of alleged infidelity, bigamy, and financial betrayal.
“For me, it’s a misfeeling because I never thought 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.”
Best said the ruling gave her a chance to set the record straight after what she described as three years of public attacks on her character.
“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,” she said.
‘He Married Another Woman Under the Same Roof’
The journalist detailed years of alleged emotional and marital abuse.
“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.”
She claimed she lived in the same house with her ex-husband for two years without intimacy or basic communication.
“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,” she said. “It got to a point I said this was becoming too much.”
According to Best, the situation escalated when her ex-husband’s family traveled to the East and arranged another marriage for him.
“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.”
The N44 Million Fraud Case
Best also recounted how she became entangled in a fraud case involving her ex-husband and his former employer, Intercontinental Distillers, makers of Chelsea drinks.
“In 2018, this man defr0ded Intercontinental Distillers… without knowing what he did with the money. He was arrested,” she said.
She said the arrest happened days after she gave birth through a Caesarean section.
“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.”
Best said she followed him to the company’s office on Sapele Road, only to watch him get handcuffed.
“Immediately we got there, they handcuffed him. They took him to state command. It was later I got to know that he had defr0ded the company 44 million Naira that I didn’t know what he did with the money.”
To protect her name, she said she took responsibility for the debt.
“I said I told the company I was going to pay,” she explained. “Before I could raise the money, they remanded him to Oko. I still raised the money, signed the undertaking that I was going to pay the money.”
The company recovered N20 million from seized goods in his warehouse, and Best said she paid an additional N21.5 million to secure his release.
‘I Set Him Up in Business, He Gave the Goods to His Girlfriends’
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.
She advised him to learn the boutique trade from Igbo traders and bankrolled his first trip to Onitsha.
“He went there. He learned. I followed him to Onitsha market where we bought our first goods, seven million and then we continued like that.”
But the gesture backfired, she alleged.
“Do you know the shocking thing? Those same goods we bought were the same thing he was giving to his concubine and his girlfriends. Several times I caught him.”
Dispute Over Land and House
Best told reporters she lost a property dispute in Court after purchasing land in her husband’s name. She said she had initially bought land in her father’s name before marriage, but her father-in-law discouraged the project during a site visit.
“Immediately father got there, the father said ‘ah my daughter, you people cannot stay here. You see this tree that I’m seeing behind? Bad people used to use it at night,’” she said.
She claimed she was persuaded to sell it and buy elsewhere. In 2016, while on maternity leave, she gave her ex-husband cash to buy land in Iguosa.
“After some days he came back and gave me the documents. The documents were in his name. And I said ‘ah how come you now put your name?’ He said ‘ah am I not your husband? Are we going to separate?’”
Best alleged it was a setup.
“Not knowing that they already planned this thing from genesis. That this person is a flasher. You can make money through her. Thereafter you dump her and go and marry from our place.”
In court, she said her ex-husband first claimed the house as his, then brought his mother who told the court it belonged to her.
“Today the house I bought. The house I built. Because they are in his name, the Court gave it to him that I couldn’t prove it,” she said. “I have a Bible-trained conscience. I will not go that route with them. If they came here with forged documents to claim the property, whatever the Court says so be it.”
‘They Denied Me Access to My Children for Three Years’
The Court granted Best custody of the children, a decision she called her only gain from the marriage.
“For three years they denied me access to my children,” she said. “They said in their tradition in the east that the children belong to them. Not even one hour did they allow my children to stay with me. Not even on weekends. Not even on holidays.”
She said she refused to accept bigamy.
“I couldn’t keep up and put up with bigamy that he was doing. He wanted me to be there and with the second wife. Then raising the children together. And I said I cannot do that. My mental health was at stake.”
Best thanked the Chief Judge of Edo State for the ruling. “Even though they’ve taken my property I am happy I have my children. And I’m happy that this marriage has been dissolved.”
Watch the video below;
The 12-year union was formally dissolved on Tuesday in Benin City.