BIANCA REPLES CRITICS ON OJUKWU'S WILL

Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain and widow of late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, yesterday appealed to all those contesting the authenticity of the Will left by her deceased husband to sheathe their sword and allow his soul to rest in peace. Describing Ojukwu as a man of honour and dignity whose legacies should not be destroyed.

She told LEADERSHIP in an exclusive interview that the Will, which has become a subject of controversy since it was read at the Enugu High Court last Friday, was prepared in 2005, adding that all the executors mentioned in the Will were present at the time it was written.

Bianca, daughter of former governor of old Enugu State, late Chief Christian Onoh, added that all the property she inherited through the Will were those she and the late Ojukwu collectively acquired in the course of their marriage, explaining that she did not get any property outside the ones both of them built as husband and wife. Ojukwu died in a London hospital on November 26, 2011.

But Emeka Ojukwu Jnr, who was mentioned in the Will as the first son of the departed Igbo leader, reportedly described the document as ‘fake’. He alleged that Barrister Emeka Onyemelukwe, who presented the Will, was a private counsel to Bianca and not that of the late Ikemba Nnewi.

The junior Emeka Ojukwu, who spoke at his country home Nnewi, Anambra state, reportedly argued that he had a copy of the original Will written by his father, “and not what he called the fraud presented as a Will”.

But Ambassador Ojukwu, said that those dissatisfied with the Will know the best option to take, even as she advised that the legacies of the late Biafran leader should not be toyed with.

“For me the most important thing is that my late husband left a Will, and so all this argument is unnecessary. All those contesting the authenticity of the Will know the right thing to do.

“As former governor of the defunct Eastern Region, and later Head of state of defunct Biafra, Ojukwu did not appropriate any government property, and so he should be left with his integrity and dignity intact. Those contesting the Will may have their reasons for doing so, but they know the right thing to do”, she emphasized.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Ojukwu, long touted as the first son of the late Ikemba Nnewi, but whose name is conspicuously missing in the Will, has also expressed doubt about the authenticity of the document, though he reportedly claimed to be worth more than the assets mentioned in the controversial Will.

The Will read last Friday before an Enugu High Court, gave Ambassador Bianca, substantial part of the property acquired by her late husband, including the famous Casabianca building on Forest Close, Enugu.