BATTLE RESUMES OVER LATE OJUKWU'S PROPERTIES!

The legal battle over the landed properties belonging to Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, in Lagos State has taken another dimension as the directors of the company have threatened to drag Lagos State government to court over its alleged role in the lease of one of the properties in Ikoyi, Lagos which is now a subject of a major dispute in the Ojukwu family.


The OTL was founded by the late Sir LP Odumegwu Ojukwu, father of the former Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, to manage the assets he acquired in Lagos State and other parts of the country.

Several cases had been instituted in court by the directors over the controversial leasing of the properties by the late Ikemba Nnewi with a view to recovering them or have the rent reviewed.

Besides, the directors alleged that rent running into millions of naira from the properties in Lagos were being collected by Ojukwu’s widow, who is currently Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, through an estate management firm engaged by her late spouse without remitting same to the company.

Mrs. Ojukwu is party to most of the cases now pending in court over the landed properties.

The threat by the Ojukwu family to sue Lagos State government, Sunday Vanguard learnt, is as a result of the discovery in a lease agreement that an unnamed Lagos State Commissioner signed the document approving the lease between OTL and an investment firm Diplomat Investment Limited on behalf of the state governor.

“The purported approval in 2008 by the Lagos State Commissioner on behalf of the governor is being scrutinized and legal action is being considered,” said a member of the Ojukwu family, who explained that 13 Ojora Rd, Ikoyi which is also 13 Alexander was the last residence the late Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu in Lagos.

The directors said the property never belonged to the late Ikemba and was not willed to him by their late father, stressing that the N5 million rent per annum on the property was a big joke as “the going rate for the location and size of such property is N60m to N100m or more.”

YOUR CHILDREN ARE ILLEGITIMATE - FAMILY TELLS BIANCA!

Person way get properties don caput una come dey fight as if na una suffer for am! Wonder how someone can come up and be querying Bianca and the children, well, except they know what we dont know! Read on.

Some members of the Ojukwu family have asked the Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, Bianca Ojukwu, to show proof that she was legally married to the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu.

In a 19-paragraph statement of defence filed by Ojukwu Transport Limited and seven others before Justice Funmilayo Atilade of the Lagos High Court, the family equally demanded:

proof from Bianca that her two sons, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu are biological sons of Odimegwu- Ojukwu.

The other defendants are Prof. Joseph Ojukwu, Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu,
Dr Patrick Ojukwu, Arc. Edward Ojukwu, Lota Akajiora Ojukwu and Mrs. Massey Udegbe (doing business under Massey Udegbe & Company).

Bianca had in suit No: LD/1539/2012 filed on behalf of her two under-aged children, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu (claimants), wants the court to:


declare that her children are entitled to the possession and occupation of the property known as No. 29, Oyinkan Abayomi Street, Ikoyi Lagos, until the harmonisation of the management and administration of the assets of the first defendant (OTL).

At the resumed hearing of the suit yesterday, counsel to Bianca and her children, was not in court which necessitated Justice Atilade to adjourn the suit till December 10 for adoption of written addresses on a Motion on Notice seeking to restrain the defendants from the property in dispute.

Bianca’s children had through their lawyer; Chris Ezugwu, prayed the court to declare as illegal the threat of forceful ejection from 29, Oyinkan Abayomi Street, by the defendants.

In addition, they urged the court to declare that they are entitled to possess the following property, namely:

No 13, Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi (now known as No. 13 Ojora Road);
No 32A, Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos;
No 30, Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos;
No. 30, McPherson Avenue, Ikoyi.

Bianca’s children said throughout the period their father was struggling to retrieve the properties from the government, the second to the seventh defendants “never played any role in the struggle nor contributed financially or otherwise to the realisation of the struggle.”

Besides, the claimant is asking for an order of court restraining the defendants, their agents or privies from interfering with the claimants’possesion and control of the properties.

But, in their statement of defence, the 1st to the 7th defendants through their lawyer, George Uwechue, SAN, averred that the subscribers of the memorandum of association of Ojukwu Transport Limited (1st defendant) at incorporation in 1952 were L. P. Ojukwu and Betram Chukwuemeka Obi, adding that the late Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu and one Prof. Joseph Ojukwu (2nd defendant) were later appointed as directors in 1953.

They stated that late Chukwuemeka Odimegwu- Ojukwu thereafter ceased to be a director of the company prior to the Nigerian civil war and was reappointed as a director on December 16, 2005 while the 3rd and 4th defendants were appointed directors in 1954 and 2005 respectively.

They added that the claimants’ statement of claim contained tissues of lies and distorted facts alleging that Bianca who instituted the suit, “being greedy felt that she could hold unto the company’s properties.”