Executor claims Okotie-Eboh’s property

By Onozure Dania

Five decades after the death of former Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, executor of his will, Mrs. Jadesimi Alero (nee Okotie-Eboh), has claimed that one of his property does not belong to him (minister) but belongs to her.At the hearing of a suit before Justice Morenikeji Obadina of a Lagos High Court, the will executor, who is the first daughter of the former Finance Minister, told the court that the property belongs to her mother.

Jadesimi, in her evidence, told the court that the property situated on Alhaji Masha Close, Off Raymond Njoku in Ikoyi, Lagos, does not belong to the children of the late Okotie-Eboh, but to her mother.

Jadesimi told the court that the block of property on Kingsway Road in Ikoyi, was sold by the family and all the transaction and the money passed through her.
Children of the former minister are challenging their sister in court over the property, arguing that it belongs to their father and not her mother.

Jadesimi told the court that she was aware of a Federal High Court case challenging the position of the family over the property of the late minister, which was before Justice Okeke, Lagos, but could not remember if the judgment favoured her or not.

Justice Obadina admitted the judgment of Okeke as exhibit in the matter before him, as the court also admitted the statement of claim filed and the letter showing that Jadesola was the executor of the will of the family, who single headedly sold the property to Dangote.

The case was adjourned when a document which portrays Jadesimi as signatory was denied by her, as she claimed it might not be her signature as the document had been marked in different areas, which makes her not to recognise it.

The case was adjourned till January 2015 for Jadesimi to continue in her evidence.