Abiola’s children seek Buhari’s intervention over sharing of his properties

Abiola’s children seek Buhari’s intervention over sharing of his properties

The children of the late Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola, have written to President Muhammed Buhari for his intervention into a family crisis over the sharing of properties left behind by their father.

The children, led by Lekan Abiola, in the appeal letter titled, ‘Report of A Decade-Long Fraud’ alleged that after over two decades of their parents’ demise, some unnamed members of the family “have continued to deny them their rights to their shares of the late business mogul’s properties within and outside Nigeria.”

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The letter reads partly, “Your Excellency, we know you are determined to build a new Nigeria where there is law and order and as a result you will want to be informed about the matter at hand before it gets out of hand.

“Our father was a man of equity and, as such, he established companies that reflected this side of him. In all his companies he made sure that no child was given one single share and that no child was even officially made a director. Even in Habib bank (now Keystone Bank), he gave equal shares to children of different mothers (Kola and Lekan were given equal shares and this can be verified).”

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They said their late father appointed some of his wives as directors in his firms, explaining that their late mother (Kudirat), was, for instance, appointed as a director in Abiola Farms and the late Simbiat was also appointed as a director in RCN.

The children said “each wife was not given more than one single share”.

They added that “strong evidence to this has been sent along with the original copy of the letter to President Buhari”.

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The letter continues, “However, five years following the death of our father, some members of the family fraudulently and criminally inserted their names into our father’s companies, including the most active one called RCN in whose name our father had used to purchase the bulk of his shares at Habib Bank.

“Having taken control of this company, these individuals were able to tamper with the Bank PHB shares and borrow monies from commercial banks using our father’s assets with the aim to default and impoverish his other children.

“This is despite the fact that in his will our father stated that his entire assets should be equally shared among all his children. This is something that should have been done over two decades ago. They were also able to use their new status in RCN to exert influence on other companies like Abiola Farms and Abiola Bookshop where RCN is also a major shareholder.”

According to the letter, “several cases had been filed seeking to declare their actions as fraudulent but the court had repeatedly adjourned the suits.

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“Even some other members who serve as administrators with Kola have joined this case against these fraudulent insertions out of fear of their names being tarnished. It is worthy of note that any open disagreement between administrators renders their validity null and void.

“In the meantime, the perpetrators continue with their acts on the basis of an invalid letter of administration that has failed to live up to its task. They never give account to qualified beneficiaries but were apt at publishing names of children who supposedly failed DNA tests while those who passed (including all of our mother’s children) have received nothing since our father died over two decades ago.

“The UK property our father secured for our mother was even sold illegally a few months after her assassination and proceeds not given to us (all we were told is that some debts involving the estate had to be paid. This property is now worth almost a billion naira). Furthermore, the money willed to her was withheld from us while other wives had the UK properties secured for them converted to their names and also received monies willed to them.”

The aggrieved children suggested ways through which Mr Buhari can intervene.

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