The will of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was on Friday presented to the family with his widow, Bianca, getting the lion’s share.The presentation by the Chief Registrar of the Enugu High Court, Mr Dennis Ekoh, was witnessed by Bianca, Mr Val Nwosu, Ojukwu’s first cousin, and Mr Mike Ejemba.
In the will, the late Ojukwu identified one Tenny Haman as one of his children. Ojukwu listed the children as Tenny Haman, Chukwuemeka Jnr, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam and Nwachukwu.
The Ikemba gave the Casabianca Lodge at No. 7, Forest Crescent, GRA, Enugu, two property at Jabi and Kuje in the FCT as well as all his money and personal effects to his widow.
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. He, however, added that if she re-married, the land should be taken away from her.
The first son, Emeka Jnr., got the family house at Nnewi, while the newly mentioned daughter, Tenny Haman, got the Jubilee Hotel located in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The Biafran warlord also shared other landed property in the village among all his children.
Ojukwu listed the trustees and executors of the will to include Bianca, Emeka Jnr and Mr James Chukwuneme.
Reacting to the will, Bianca, who is Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, expressed satisfaction with its contents.
“It was a fair will. This time round, he did not disappoint us,’’ she said.
The ambassador, however, expressed shock at the disclosure of a new daughter in the family, whom she said had never been mentioned by her husband.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that none of the children was present at the presentation of the will.
Source: NAN
It’s normal for a family like ours to have issues – Ojukwu’s son
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| Emeka Ojukwu, jnr, |
Excerpts;
There are speculations that one of your brothers has filed a suit at a law courtagainst Bianca barely one year after the death of your father?How true is this?
Are you referring to Debe?
Yes?
He has taken my father’s wife to court. He has taken me to court. He has taken my fathers brothers to court and even my cousins to court. He has taken the AIG of police to court and even the army command has been taken to court. Almost every body has been taken to court over one claim or the other.
I think that you would have to ask him why he is in court with everybody. And I want to remind you that while my father was sick in England, he took my Ojukwu Transport Company and the Directors which my father was a member to court. So, my father’s name was listed as a defendant. So these are things that you would have to ask him. I do not want to comment further on that. If there are issues within any family and there bound to be issues especially in a big family like this, it is best resolved within the family whether you are from the outside, or you are from the inside. Going to court or going to the police or even going to the press will certainly not solve the problem. All you do is to aggravate the system and it’s not good and you will end up creating more enemies.
Rumour has it that your father’s will has been tampered with. Is it true?
I have heard those rumours and people have asked me severally about it. Essentially, my father’s will is known to me and there has been a rumour and people are saying that there has been changes in the will. We are not aware of such changes. But we are watching to see. There is a rumour about reading of the will severally. Three months ago, there was a rumour that the will had been read without some people involved knowing about it. I want to wait and see, given that I know what my father said is what it is. You should also know that reading a will is a different thing from executing a will.
The family will have to look at it to see who produced these changes and what the changes are. If it is a deviation from my fathers wishes, then we will surely challenge it in court. I cannot discuss the details of my father’s will in the public but we do have copies with us.
Last Sunday, your family had one year remembrance of late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu. People had expected that the South East governors would have been present. But on that day it was only governor Peter Obi that came.
Let me clarify something for you first of all. What happened on Sunday was the removing of our mourning cloth. It was not the remembrance. You remember my father died on the 25th of November and he was buried in March. The remembrance would be around that time. We as a family decided to give him one year of mourning from the day he died and that was why. We celebrated mass on the 25th. It is more of a private family matter or ceremony with some few close friends of the family. It was not supposed to be for the general public as such.
Source