Some members of
the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s family have alleged
that the widow of the deceased, Bianca, is greedy by laying claim to some
assets of her late husband.
In a 19-paragraph
statement of defence filed before a Lagos High Court, Igbosere, the Ojukwu
Transport Limited and seven family members challenged Bianca to prove her
claims in the suit which she instituted on behalf of her two underage sons.
The two sons – Afamefuna
and Nwachukwu – are the claimants on record in the suit numbered, LD/1539/2012.
The Ojukwu Transport
Limited, which is the property in dispute in the suit, is the first defendant.
Other defendants, apart from OTL, are Prof. Joseph Ojukwu, Emmanuel Ojukwu,
Lotanna Ojukwu, Dr. Patrick Ojukwu, Mr. Edward Ojukwu, Lota Ojukwu and
Mrs. Massey Udegbe.
Their statement of
defence read, “The property belongs to the first defendant (Ojukwu Transport
Company). The fact is that the claimants’ mother, being greedy, felt she could
hold onto the first defendant’s property.
“For over 12 years prior
to his death, the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu moved to Enugu and since
then had not lived at the first defendant’s property as alleged by the
claimants.”
They challenged Bianca’s
children to show proof of “any agreement which their late father had from the
first defendant (OTL) for him to control and/or manage the property of the
first defendant.”
Bianca, who is Nigeria’s
Ambassador to Spain, had instituted the suit on behalf of Afamefuna and
Nwachukwu urging the court to declare that the two underage children were
entitled to some assets belonging to the Ojukwu Transport Limited.
She wanted the court to
declare that her children were entitled to occupy and take possession of the
company’s property at 29, Oyinkan Abayomi Street, Ikoyi, Lagos “until the
harmonisation of the management and administration of the assets of the first
defendant (OTL)”.
In addition, they urged
the court to declare that they were entitled to possess their father’s property
at 13 Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi (now known as 13, Ojora Road);
32A, Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 30, Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; and 30,
McPherson Avenue, Ikoyi.
But, in their statement
of defence, the seven defendants, through their lawyer, George Uwechue (SAN),
stated that the claimants’ statement of claim contained “tissues of lies and
distorted facts.”
At the resumed hearing
of the suit on Wednesday, counsel for Bianca and her children was not in court.
The development necessitated Justice Funmilayo Atilade to adjourn the suit till
December 10.
The judge had adjourned
the matter for adoption of written addresses on an application filed by the
claimants seeking to restrain the defendants from the property in dispute.
