STEPHEN UBIMAGO reports on a legal suit involving a purported husband of one late Josephine Ibu, who allegedly orchestrated her demise with a view to appropriating her impressive estate. Reserved for hearing in July before a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, the facts of this case should be a solemn warning, especially to rich single women on how not to marry certain kinds of men… Background Facts Sometime in 1999, at a meeting of the late Ibu Igbere children – all females save one – a decision was reached that each daughter should contribute, over the long haul, towards the building of a house (for their mother) in Port Harcourt, as a way of preserving the family name. In the same event, the daughters also reached the decision to build an imposing shopping complex in Lagos, to also bear the family name, “Ibu Igbere Shopping Plaza.” Thus, in these two respects, the daughters held joint tenancy of the properties. Following the said meeting, one of the siblings, late Josephine Iguma Ibu, on June 15, 2001, bought two plots of land situate at Ago Palace Way, Okota, Isolo, from one Tajudeen Otunla Abimbola. She paid N2.5million as the purchase price for the plots of land. And some years after, a shopping complex was built on the land pursuant to the decision taken at the family meeting of 1999. At the time of purchase of the land, late Josephine Ibu, then a spinster, was barely a year in the service of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR), meaning that the money with she bought the land was barely from her purse. The funds were indeed provided by two of her elder sisters, who were based in the United States. Hence, Josephine Ibu, now deceased, held the land in a representative capacity and in trust for all the Ibu sisters, considering that each of them made contributions towards erecting the said structures. On June 20, 2001, the land’s vendor Abimbola, issued a receipt in respect of the land in favour of the late Josephine, following which he executed a Deed of Assignment in her favour still. The Documents of Title in respect of the land, which could be traced to one Sina Akinfele, to whom the land was first conveyed in 1976 by the Oke Ogbere Family of Isolo, down to Abimbola, and finally to Josephine Ibu, were later left in the custody of the youngest of the siblings, Ann Ibu. As earlier hinted, between 2001 and 2013, the siblings contributed varying sums towards the development of the land. But in between the period, Josephine who held the legal title to the land in trust for and in joint tenancy with his sister siblings, had contracted a first marriage under the Act on May 1st, 2004, at the St. Cyril Catholic Church, Okota, Isolo, Lagos, with one Anthony Ozoro. The union however ended sometime in 2007 without a proper judicial dissolution, meaning, of course, that in the eye of the law the marriage subsisted, although the couple had informally separated. Subsequently, Josephine allegedly contracted a customary marriage with one Linus Biakoro the same year, 2007, when she separated from Ozoro. The alleged marriage lasted till 2013, as Josephine in that year died intestate, leaving behind an impressive estate. Her employer at the time of her demise, the DPR, also paid her death benefits into a Zenith Bank Plc account, which she held jointly with her last supposed husband, Biakoro (another incident of joint tenancy involving the deceased). And Biakoro, who began to parade himself as her widower, commenced hurried burial rights for her without so much as notifying her sisters or any of her immediate family members. By happenstance, however, the family got wind of the development and obtained an ex parte order from an Abia State High Court, Uturu, restraining Biakoro from proceeding with the burial rites. The ex parte order also froze the account into which her death benefits were paid, thereby restraining him from dealing with the death benefit. However, Biakoro managed to gain access to the money and dealt it to the mortification of Josephine’s family members, who claimed he was never married to their sister, insisting he was an impostor and gold-digger. Before long, Biakoro also began to process Letters of Administration in respect of the deceased’s estate whereupon he applied to the Probate Registry of the Lagos High Court for grant of same. He was pretty close to obtaining the Letter when the deceased’s sisters entered a caveat restraining the Court’s Probate Registrar from granting the Letters. The Suit In the statement of claim on oath deposed to by Ann Ibu, the said youngest of the Ibu sisters, it was stated that Biakoro, in order to appropriate and convert the deceased’s estate, subjected her to untold domestic violence despite that she was a sickle cell patient. According to Ann’s averment, Biakoro initially began to employ ceaseless menacing threats and violence to harass the deceased into handing over to him the original Documents of Title to the said land on which the shopping plaza in Okota was built. Fearing for her life, she moved in with her younger sister Ann, who then was living in Gbagada, for two months whereupon the deceased handed over to her the title documents for safe-keeping. She however met her death just few days after returning to the home she shared as residence with her alleged husband Biakoro. Suffice it to note that the major argument being pushed by the deceased family is that granted that Biakoro and the deceased did cohabit until her demise; she however was never married to him despite his claim to the contrary. Thus, he is an impostor and a gold-digger, who the law must stop for being a desperate fraud as he, from circumstantial evidence, was complicit in her orchestrated death, the deceased’s sisters, who brought the suit, contend. According to them, to the extent that the first union between the deceased and Ozoro was never properly dissolved, the alleged formalization of a customary marriage between the deceased and Biakoro was void. Hence Biakoro is a total stranger to the deceased’s estate, her surviving siblings further contended. They averred that while they did witness her wedding/marriage to Anthony Ozoro, no member of her family witnessed her alleged union to Biakoro. They even tendered the Marriage Certificate respecting the union between the deceased and Ozoro in which the 1st Claimant Ann Ibu was one of the witnesses. They moreover posited that prior to his alleged customary marriage with the deceased; Biakoro had also been married to a woman with whom he fathered three biological offspring. He however deserted the marriage without proper legal determination, following which he entered a purported nuptial with the deceased, the Claimants further posited. In light of the foregoing averments to the effect that no valid marriage had been contracted between Biakoro and the deceased, the sisters maintained that Biakoro’s parade of himself as the deceased’s widower amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation. It was on the basis of such misrepresentation that he dealt and squandered the death benefits of the Deceased in defiance of a Court Order in Suit No. HUT/4/2013. Against this background, Biakoro was ordered by Justice Okoroafor of an Abia State High Court to return the sum of N2.5 million, which he withdrew from the said Zenith Bank Account. The sisters further claimed that Biakoro, desperate to convert the Shopping Plaza in Okota, forged the land documents as he couldn’t lay hold of the original title documents. In the forged Survey Plan No SJUA/301/07(A&B)2009/LA, which the said Linus Biakoro commissioned, the owner of the parcel of land situate along Ago Palace Way was Mrs. Josephine Iguma BIAKORO. However, the original Survey Plan No. FF6632/L/84, drawn by Femi Falade and Partners in respect of the land in issue, bears the name Josephine Iguma IBU as owner of the land, given that the deceased bought the land as a single, hence in her maiden name “IBU.” In fact, investigations at the Office of the Surveyor-General of Lagos State revealed that never had a Record Copy of the forged Survey Plan No. SJUA/301/07(A&B)2009/LA been lodged at the Lands Registry, the claimants also submitted. As noted, the construction of the plaza effectively commenced in 2009 and was completed in 2013, the year Josephine died. It was funded by the financial contributions of all the Ibu Daughters as Joint Owners or Tenants. On her part, the Deceased only contributed the money she took out as loan from her former employer’s Thrift and Cooperative Society. As for Ann’s part, sums totaling N22.2 million were contributed by her at different times towards financing the construction of the Plaza; while the other sisters in the US and another in Port Harcourt equally contributed various sums. Being the oldest of the siblings living in Nigeria, the deceased received all contributions toward the construction of the Plaza. And being also the manager of the project, she had engaged the 1st Defendant, Biakoro, as the project contractor. The sisters claimed he was nothing more than that. According to them, being nothing more than the contractor of the project, and having made no financial contribution whatsoever towards the construction of the shopping plaza, it amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation that Biakoro was parading himself as owner/joint owner of the Plaza. Worse still, without obtaining Claimants’ consent, he’d even commenced collection of rents from persons who took out leases in respect of shops in the disputed shopping complex, while failing to give account to the Claimants when they demanded same. As it stands now, claimants’ counsels have addressed a letter to Biakoro, demanding possession of the Shopping Plaza. They’ve also demanded that he should give account of rents he’d hitherto collected therefrom. Also, through their counsels, the claimants addressed a letter to the Probate Registrar, who was joined as a defendant in the suit, requesting for total abatement of the processing of Biakoro’s application for Letters of Administration in respect of the deceased’s Estate. They’re also praying for other declaratory reliefs and injunctive orders against Biakoro in the suit which is currently before a Lagos State High Court. Issues In light of the above, the claimants distilled three issues for determination by the court, to wit: Whether the 1st Defendant has been able to establish any legitimate interest in equity or in law to qualify him for the grant of Letters of Administration in respect of the Deceased’s Estate? Whether the 1st defendant is liable for trespass in respect of the property situate at 174/176 Ago Palace Way, Okota, having regard to the facts as pleaded in evidence? Where the Court decides in the negative in respect of Issue 1, and in the affirmative in respect of Issue 2, whether aggravated damages, costs and the rendition of account awarded against the 1st Defendant? The matter comes up for hearing on July 24, 2018.]]>

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