BEVERLY HILLS, CA, November 12, (THEWILL) – Judgment in the dispute over the management of the assets of the late Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, who died over 10 years ago, has been fixed for February 4.
An Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Folashade Ojo chose the date on Tuesday after parties in the dispute adopted their written addresses .
Okadigbo’s eldest son Chaka and his brother Osagyefo are asking the court to, among others, declare that the deceased’s widow, Margery, now a Senator, was not a beneficiary of the intestate estate of her late husband.
They also sought the court’s declaration that Mrs. Okadigbo was not entitled to share, with the deceased’s children, in the assets and properties of their late father.
They urged the court to amend the letters of administration granted Margery and his other son, Pharoah by substituting Pharoah for Chaka as co-administrator with the widow.
They also urged the court to direct Margery and Pharoah to account for their late father’s estate.
They noted in a supporting affidavit that Margery had failed to render account for the funds accruing from the late Senate President’s “bank accounts, stocks, shares in companies and royalty from published books and other properties.”
But Margery argued that the action before the court was improper, saying there was a letter from Chaka authorising his younger brother, Pharoah, to commence the process of obtaining a power of attorney.
She further claimed that it was on the strength of the letter that his brother became a joint executor of the estate.
Adopting the plaintiffs’ written address on Tuesday , their counsel, Ayo Kusamotu, urged the court to grant his clients’ prayers.
He recommended to the court a publication by the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies (NIALs) – “Reinstatement of customary laws in Nigeria” – to support his argument that Margery was not entitled to benefit from Okadigbo’s estate under the Igbo tradition.
Defence’s lawyer, Tochukwu Nweke, urged the court to dismiss the suit on ground of incompetence.
He said the suit was wrongly instituted, contending that the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs could not be granted by the court in view of the way it was couched.
Nweke argued that the onus was on the plaintiffs to establish by cogent and compelling evidence that Mrs. Okadigbo was not entitled to benefit from the estate of the late Okadigbo.
He said that the plaintiffs had failed to prove the Onitsha custom which dis- entitled Mrs Okadigbo from being beneficiary of her late husband’s estate.
Nweke further argued that should such custom existed, it was repugnant to the rule of natural justice.
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