Months After Burial,Ojukwu Family Disintegrates..Fight over N10b Properties

The family of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Ikemba Nnewi, is now at loggerheads over property worth over N10 billion belonging to their grand father, West Africa’s first multimillionaire, the late Sir Louis Philipe Odumegwu Ojukwu.
According to findings, the late Sir Louis Ojukwu had corporate interests and choice property and acreage all over Lagos-Apapa, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Mushin, Oshodi-Apapa Express Way, Enugu and several states in the country, most of which are now generating legal contentions among the many children from different wives. These property, according to Debe Ojukwu, grandson and the eldest son of the late Biafran leader, Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, is worth over N10 billion. The property include the Nnewi houses on Wharf Road, Apapa and the controversial Vilaska Lodge on Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, among others.
During his lifetime, the Ikemba was in charge of the property left behind by his father though he was equally wealthy in his lifetime. Sunday Mirror findings revealed that the Ikemba had a magnificent mansion on Isi-Uzo Street, off Hill View Street, Independence Layout, Enugu; it was from the house that he moved to Cassabianca, the palatial mansion in Enugu, GRA which he named after his last wife, Bianca.
There are no litigations or quarrels concerning Ikemba’s property, as, ac-cording to his first son and heir, Chief Debe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Akpunwa Nnewi, his will has not been read.
Speaking to Sunday Mirror over the weekend, Debe Ojukwu said contrary to re-ports that Ikemba’s property are the bone of contention, it is actually that of his grand-father.
“That Ojukwu’s property is in contention is not true. This is because the will has not been read. There are two things here, either there is a will or there is none. If there is none, then the appropriate people will apply for a let-ter of authority. While they are applying for a letter of authority, there is room for anybody to raise objection.
“The litigation on ground is actually about the man-agement of my grandfa-ther’s property. But the case is in court and once a matter is in court, you don’t specu-late on it, you allow the court to do its work. When they sued me, I was in London, and when I got back, I now replied them with a counter litigation. Soon after, everybody started fretting.
However, according to Debe, the real reasons why these litigations are crop-ping up are because he is the manager of these property, being the first son of the late Biafran leader.
He explained that the case in court has been there since April 2011 when his father was still in a London hospital.
Debe expressed displea-sure that some members of the family filed the suit while his father was still on his sick bed. “The disagreement has been on ground, even before he was flown abroad, but he had always cautioned against anybody fighting over property, only for him to be flown abroad in an air ambulance, and some people to come out to fight over the property. If you are working with somebody, and he sud-denly falls sick, do you start fighting over the company, or pray for him? When he is on the sick bed, somebody rushes to court in order to disenfranchise his lineage, because that is what they are trying to do, it’s evil. If I had kept quiet, they would have consolidated their position and disenfranchised (disin-herit) his lineage. That was why I took my pre-emptive action of filing a counter suit. Because it hit the nail on the head, they now said that unless I withdraw the case, I will not play my role during his burial. But this is a case before the court, and you don’t go and decide on it outside the court- that will mean that you are contemp-tuous of the court.
On the relationship be-tween him and his late dad’s wife, Bianca, he said it might not be unconnected with the court action he filed “I believe that going to court is the last resort for the common man. In any situation you find somebody going to court, you must see that per-son as a gentleman.
“In August 2011, Debe and his younger brother, Emeka Ojukwu (Jnr) had approached a Lagos High Court on the property. The claimants listed in suit No. LD/794/2011 before Justice O.A Adefope Okojie are Og-bonna Ojukwu, Chief Debe Odumegwu Ojukwu, and Silver Convention Nigeria Limited.
The defendants are Ojuk-wu Transport, Professor Joseph Ojukwu, Dim Chuk-wuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Engineer Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Ojukwu, and Massey Udegbe.
Justice Adefope-Okojie af-ter listening to counsel to the claimants, Kayode Ayorinde, made an order for substituted service on Prof Ojukwu, the Ikemba and Emmanuel Ojukwu at No. 26, Park Avenue, GRA Enugu, No. 7 Forest Crescent, GRA Enugu and No. 24 Isiuzo Street, In-dependence Layout