-Monies, Estate, Willed to Bianca and Eight Children
CHKWUEMEKA Odumegwu Ojukwu, the late military leader who led the
defunct Republic of Biafra during the civil war in Nigeria, identified a previously unknown daughter in his will, according to details of the will, now in public arena.
In a presentation made by the chief registrar of the Enugu High Court in Enugu State, the late warlord and highly revered leader of the Igbo rebellion identified Tenny Haman as his daughter, alongside seven other known children.
Ojukwu’s other children include Chukwuemeka Jr., Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam and Nwachukwu, all of whom to assets belonging to their late father.
The late leader also willed his estate and monies to his wife, Bianca, on the condition that she does not remarry.
Ms. Ojukwu is the current Nigerian ambassador to Spain.
The late Ojukwu, who holds the traditional title ‘Ikemba’ willed his Casabianca Lodge property at No. 7, Forest Crescent, GRA, Enugu, two properties at Jabi and Kuje in federal capital city of Abuja, as well as all his money and personal effects to her.
He also said that Bianca should replace him as the trustee in the family company, Ojukwu Transport Ltd, while also giving her two plots of land in his village at Nnewi.
The eldest son of Ikemba Ojukwu gets the family house at their hometown of Nnewi, while the newly identified daughter, Tenny Haman, inherits the Jubilee Hotel located in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Other landed properties in the village were willed to each of Ojukwu’s children, designating Bianca, Emeka Jr. and James Chukwuneme as trustees and executors.
Ms. Ojukwu, who expressed shock at the revelation of a previously unknown daughter in the will, expressed satisfaction with the content of her late husband’s will.
News of the will is the latest in the saga concerning the estate of the late Ikemba of Nnewi, within whose family a disagreement blew into open arena in the last few days.
Two of Bianca’s sons had taken her late husband’s siblings to court over ownership issues concerning certain properties that the sons believe was their father’s.
In a suit at the Lagos High Court on October 9, 2012, the two sons, Afemefuna and Nwachukwu, claimed that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street formerly 29, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos “until the harmonization of the management and administration of the assets of the 1st Defendant (Ojukwu Transport Limitd).”
They urged the court to declare that the forceful ejection of the claimants from the said property was illegal just as they also asked the court to declare that they were entitled to the possession of the property known as 13, Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; 32A, Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 30, Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos and 4, Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, which they claimed, had been under the possession of their late father.
The suit further sought an order of the court to restrain the defendants or their agents from interfering with the “Claimants’ possession and control of 29, Oyinka Abayomi Street (formerly Queens Drive) Ikoyi, Lagos” as well as the aforementioned four property also situated in Lagos.
Records show that Mrs. Ojukwu filed the suit on behalf of her two sons.
However, Ojukwu Transport Ltd. also filed a fresh suit number on November 1, 2012, also before a Lagos High Court, claiming possession of the property at 29 Queens Drive in Ikoyi, Lagos, alongside an expected yearly N40 million rentable value of the property from September 27, 2012, up till the moment when the defendant vacates possession of the property.
The suit also demanded N100 million as damages from the late Ikemba’s widow, as well as 21 per cent interest on the accrued sum until judgment was given, alongside another five per cent until the entire sum is liquidated.
The legal tussle has left tenants occupying the affected properties into confusion, as they remain in a quandary over whom they are financially obligated.
The late Ikemba Ojukwu died on November died on November 28, 2011 after a protracted illness that saw him moved to the United Kingdom for advanced care.