A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has delivered judgment in the decades long litigation over the management and control of some of the assets of Ojukwu Transport Ltd, OTL, in favour of Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, widow of the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, and her two children.
The late Ojukwu was a director of OTL, a family company, before he died in 2011.
The suit, LD/1539/2012, filed by Bianca on behalf of the claimants, her two sons, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu, who were infants at the time of his death, against OTL and seven others (brothers of the late Dim Ojukwu, their sons and property agent) before the court, was over alleged move by the defendants to take possession of claimants residence at No. 29 Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos, as well as some of the company’s property in Lagos, which were under the management and control of their late Biafran warlord.
The defendants in the suit filed in 2012 are OTL, Prof Joseph Ojukwu, Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu, Dr. Patrick Ike Ojukwu, Arch. Edward Ojukwu, Lota Akajiora Ojukwu and Messrs. Massey Udegbe (doing business under Massey Udegbe & Company).
The claimants stated in the lawsuits that at about August 4, 2011, while their father was sick and hospitalized in London, the 4th-7th defendants attempted to forcibly take possession of their home at No. 29 Oyinkan Abayomi Drive (formerly Oueens Drive), Ikoyi, Lagos, claiming that after the death of their father and soon after his burial, the 2nd-7th defendants went on to appoint a property agent, the 8th defendant, to take over, not only their father’s residence at Oyinkan Abayomi Drive but also other property under the possession, management and control of their father, namely No. 13 Hawksworth Rd (now known as 13 Ojora Rd) Ikoyi; No. 32A Commercial Ave, Yaba, Lagos; No. 30 Gerard Rd, Ikoyi, and No.4 Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The court presided over by Justice A. M. Lawal, delivered its judgement on June 24 this year.
The court ruled that the claimants being biological children of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu by that virtue are entitled to the estate of their father.