As controversy continues to swirl around the will of late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, News Express can this morning report that the content of the document was leaked to some members of the family well in advance of its formal presentation two days ago in Enugu, South-East Nigeria.

The cat was let out of the bag via a website dedicated to vilifying Chief Sylvester Debe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the 56 years old Lagos-based lawyer who lays claim to being Ojukwu’s first son but who has had running battles with other family members since the old man’s death on November 26, 2011.

The website, http://debeojukwu.m.webs.com, authoritatively declared that Debe “is also NOT mentioned in General Ojukwu’s will.”

The declaration turned out to be 100 per cent correct as Debe’s name never appeared even once in Ojukwu’s will presented by Mr. Dennis Ekoh, Chief Registrar of the Enugu High Court on November 30. Recognised as Ojukwu’s children in the will are Chukwuemeka Jnr, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam, Nwachukwu and one Tenny Haman, who was previously unheard of.

The anti-Debe Ojukwu website identified “Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Jr, Ikemba The Second” as “The General’s Heir.” This, too, correctly reflected the content of the will, which recognised Emeka Ojukwu Jr. as the great man’s first son and gave him his father’s house in Nnewi in accordance with Igbo tradition and custom which automatically leaves a man’s ancestral home for the first son to hold in trust for the family.

The publication by http://debeojukwu.m.webs.com was made over a week before the official presentation of the will. Investigations by News Express showed that the website was constructed by DudaMobile, a company founded in 2009 and credited with having constructed millions of mobile websites.

News Express could not could not confirm for whom DudaMobile built and operates http://debeojukwu.m.webs.com but Clive Anawana, who is conversant with the politics in Ojukwu’s family, disclosed that it was “created by proxies of the major beneficiaries of this (Ojukwu’s) will.”
Anawana raised a poser: “How can a website broadcast the contents of a will which hadn’t been read,” adding: “It became clear someone or certain people had access to this will and can conceivable alter it to suit their purposes of denying a clear Ikemba offspring of his status as a son, simply to undermine him as they are threatened by his potentials as Ojukwu’s son.”

Reacting to the controversial will, Debe Ojukwu told the Lagos-based newspaper The Guardian that his non-invitation to the reading of the will “shows that somebody had read the Will before now, because if the Will was confidential, as it ought to be, they would have invited all his relations and children, so that the content of the Will would be read before everybody.”

Debe, however, hinted that he would not be challenging the Will in court, because, according to the newspaper, “he is okay with the way he is, noting that a father can decide to disinherit his child and share his property the way he wants.”

News Express reports that none of Ojukwu’s children was present at the presentation of the will recorded as having been registered at the Court Registry on July 9, 2005. As we reported earlier, those who witnessed the reading of the will were Ojukwu’s widow Bianca, Ojukwu’s first cousin Mr. Val Nwosu, and Mr. Mike Ejemba.

•Photo: The late Dim Ojukwu.