Ojukwu’s firm rejects Bianca as director

Late Ojukwu’s son, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Jnr; and widow, Bianca, at the funeral rites of Ojukwu, in Aba
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A Director of Ojukwu Transport Company Limited has said the wife of the late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, Bianca, has no place on the directorship or trusteeship of the company.

Director, Mr. Ifeukwu Ojukwu, said on Monday that since OTL was owned by the late Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the late Biafran warlord could not dictate who the trustees or directors of the company should be.

Ojukwu, who was the Ikemba of Nnewi, had directed, in his Will, that Bianca, should replace him as a trustee of OTL.

Ifeukwu said, “Bianca is neither a trustee member nor a Director of OTL and it is good to note that OTL is a different property from the things the late Ikemba Ojukwu had and the directorship cannot be transferred through a Will.”

The clarification by Ifeukwu, who is based in Boston, United States, came as counsel for the late Ikemba, Chief Emeka Onyemelukwe, insisted that the Will read last Friday at the Enugu State High Court Registrar was authentic and sacrosanct.

Onyemelukwe, who was reacting to a claim by Emeka Ojukwu Jnr. that the Will was manipulated, said  the Will was registered in the Enugu High Court on July 9, 2005, while the codicil, which was to give details and correct any mistakes in the Will, was dated December 16, 2009.

Onyemelukwe, who tendered documents at a press conference in Enugu to back his argument, stated that he had been close to the late Ojukwu since his return from exile in Cote d’Ivoire in 1982.

He said all Ojukwu’s legal papers were  still with him, including those of properties and chattels willed to Emeka Jnr, who claimed he did not know him as his father’s lawyer or friend.

Meanwhile, Ojukwu Jnr. has taken over his father’s residence in Nnewi, “according to the Igbo tradition that the first son would inherit his father’s house and compound on the event of his death.”

Ojukwu (Jnr.) said even if the Will had not covered the Nnewi residence, it was traditionally statutory that the first son inherits his father’s house.

He also said other contents of the Will could be constested in court.