The crisis in the Odumegwu Ojukwu family has reached a new low, with those fighting the widow of late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka a Odimegwu-Ojukwu, disowning her and her children.

In court yesterday, the aggrieved Ojukwu family challenged Bianch, who is Nigeria’s incumbent Ambassador to Spain, Bianca Ojukwu, to provde proof that she was legally married to the late Ezeigbo Gburugburu and that he was the biological father of her two sons, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu.

The demand was contained in a 19-paragraph statement of defence filed before a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere by Ojukwu Transport Limited (OTL) and seven others in response to a suit by Bianca on behalf of her two sons.

Other defendants in the suit are Prof Joseph Ojukwu, Engr Emmanuel Ojukwu, Lotanna Putalora Ojukwu, Dr Patrick Ojukwu, Arc Edward Ojukwu, Lota Akajiora Ojukwu and Mrs Massey

Udegbe (doing business under Massey Udegbe & Company).

Bianca, in the suit filed on behalf of under-aged Afamefuna and Nwachukwu, is seeking an order of court declaring that they (children) are entitled to the possession and occupation of the property known as No 29 Oyinkan Abayomi Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, until the harmonisation of the management and administration of the assets of the first defendant, OTL.

When the matter came up yesterday before Justice Funmilayo Atilade, the counsel to Bianca and her sons was not in court, making Justice Atilade to adjourn the suit till December 10 for adoption of written addresses on a motion on notice seeking to restrain the defendants from the property in dispute.

In the suit filed on behalf of the claimant by Chris Ezugwu, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu are praying the court to declare as illegal, the threat of forceful ejection from 29, Oyinkan Abayomi Street, Ikoyi, by the defendants.

They are also urging the court to declare that they are entitled to possess the following property: No. 13 Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi (now known as No. 13 Ojora Road); No. 32A Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; No. 30 Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; No. 30 McPherson Avenue, Ikoyi.

They allege that throughout the period their late father struggled to retrieve the properties from government, the second to seventh defendants “never played any role in the struggle nor contributed financially or otherwise to the realisation of the struggle.”

They are equally asking for an order of court restraining the defendants, their agents or privies from interfering with the claimants’ possession and control of the property.

In their statement of defence filed on their behalf by George Uwechue (SAN), the defendants aver that the subscribers of the memorandum of association of OTL at incorporation in 1952 were LP Ojukwu and Betram Chukwuemeka Obi, pointing out that the late Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu and one Professor Joseph Ojukwu were later appointed as directors in 1953.

They further claim that late Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu ceased to be a director of the company prior to the Nigerian civil war and was reappointed as a director on December 16, 2005 while the third and fourth defendants were appointed directors in 1954 and 2005 respectively.

They dismissed the claimants’ statement of claim as being full of lies and distorted facts, accusing of “being greedy.”

•Photo shows Bianca Ojukwu.

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