How have you fared since the death of your husband?
It has been very rough, not easy. The process of putting children through secondary schools and choice universities abroad is financially tasking. We are very grateful to God for his grace over us thus far.
But one would expect that as a medical doctor you should have no difficulty surviving and raising your children.
By the grace of God, the children are alright. But I am not registered to practice medicine in America although I am registered to practice in Nigeria. The financial demands after MKO’s death was enormous. I had to venture into private business.
How many children do you have?
I have five daughters, four of them are graduates in different disciplines. My first daughter is a medical doctor practising in California. She has a different father. The second is an accountant in Washington, the third is a petroleum engineer working with an oil company in Houston, Texas, my fourth daughter just graduated from Cornell University in America; and for this reason I give and would always give glory to God. I paid their fees with loans and grants from banks which my children are still trying to pay back.
What about this alimony suit you instituted against your husband about twenty years ago to contest the fact that Chief Abiola disowned two of your children?
I didn’t institute any alimony anywhere. I want you to check the record and there is a mistaken identity. Somebody did but not me. I did my own DNA test and I came up clean. I lived in America and the alimony suit was in London. You can conduct another investigation along that line.
You seem to know so much about your late husband’s properties all over the world?
I don’t know how you arrived at that conclusion that I know so much about his properties. It is only the administrators and the executors that could have that information. That was the reason I went to court, both in Nigeria and London so that the courts could summon those concerned with the will to bring documents in their trust.
But you know the trustees, lawyers and others?
You must realise that I had a legal encounter with the late MKO in his lifetime which gave me the opportunity to know his lawyers. Besides, he introduced me to some of them including his lawyers, bankers and some of his friends.
Can you mention some of them?
He introduced to the late General Shehu Musa Yar Adua the same day that he introduced his private banker, Edward Vontongarin of ABN AMRO bank in Rottendam, Netherland in late 1985. The meeting was at the Savoy Hotel in London where I was on vacation for two weeks.
Shouldn’t you have allowed Alhaji Kola Abiola, being his father’s heir or any member of Abiola’s extended family to take initiatives?
Why has he not done that all these years? In fairness to Alhaji Mubasiru, MKO’s younger brother, he tried a lot to see that nothing is done to tarnish his brother’s image, but he is not capable of facing Kola who is not willing to accommodate anybody. What I feel is that these foreign banks are feeding fat on Abiola’s wealth and they are taking advantage of the fact that Abiola did not leave a cohesive family. And those he left do not bother whether the whole asset is stolen by the white man as long as people like me in the family do not get it. My problem is that I know my husband very well and I know that he was never a wicked person. It therefore beats my imagination that this generous human being would disown his children he had always loved till death. He never ceased calling Lola, the first daughter until he died. That was the information that stunned me about the will. How can he disown his children while still writing letters and sending money to them, and addressing them as wives and children when he knew that he had already written a will in 1989 disowning them?
But you probated the 1989 will in London; why do you now suspect it’s fake?
At the time Chief died, I made a call to his banker, Edward Vontogarin of AMRO Bank to whom I had traced all monthly payments in Chemical Bank in New York. I had always called him even when Abiola was incarcerated. He told me that Abiola had provided very well for all his children but that the instruction to execute would not start unless he died. When Abiola died unexpectedly, he readily became the first person I called and he transferred me to his secretary, Miss Diane. It was Diane that told me that all Abiola’s documents had been forwarded to Rodney Timpson.
What evidence do you have that the 1989 will was not authentic?
I am convinced that the 1989 will is a fake one. First when I asked for the original, nobody was ready to give it to me. Secondly, in 1989, Chief Abiola ordered everybody to have a blood test with one Dr. Lincoln. Thirdly in 1993, chief gave me an affidavit in which he claimed to have 77 children alive. I attached that particular affidavit to documents of my case in London. He even made a joke that night that he was chasing the record of the late Olowo of Owo in Ondo state, Oba Sir Olateru Olagbegi who he said had over 100 children. If chief had intentions of disowning any child at all, he would have done that between 1995 and 1996 before he died since he reviewed his will every year. Apart from that, when his lawyer Rodney Thomson was confronted at the court in London, he said that something was wrong with the will. The same assertion was made by Abiola’s fiduciary, Mr. Frick Senior who said the will I probated was strange and that the instructions given to him by Chief MKO were different from the one in the 1989 will. I accept responsibility that I probated the will out of ignorance and I am ready to tell the whole world to ask the person who gave it to me to explain how he came about it.
My belief in the court to do justice is unshakeable but a situation whereby the issue of jurisdiction is being used to frustrate the merit of the case is worrisome. As a layman, I believe that the courts should just allow those foreign banks to be served before the jurisdiction comes to play. The long arm of the law should be able to get anywhere in the world. All I know is that it may only take time, but justice would prevail. But this fake will cannot stand and the foreign collaborators will be exposed.
Now that the matter is before the court, what are your expectations?
Some time in 1992, I sued Chief Abiola over issues that his first son, Kola, has been going around boasting that he would disown any child Abiola had outside. It was because of this that I sued Abiola to find a way of taking care of my children. Initially Abiola did not come to court but the long arm of law brought him. He came to a New York court with Lola, his first daughter. He said he would not pay the amount of money I was asking for but he was ready to make sure that every child of his was provided for in the will. He also swore to an affidavit to that effect. The affidavit is with me. My argument is, if in 1993 he came to court with Lola, how come the 1989 will disowned her. That is one of the reasons for saying the will of 1989 is fake. I asked Kola at a meeting along with administrators to which Dele Abiola was in attendance in London that: ‘what type of will is this?’ Kola then pointed to Rodney Timpson to explain. Kendall Freeman where the will was probated said that the will was not genuine and D.J. Freeman then wrote to Timpson to say so and that if truly the will was made by Abiola, then it needed further investigation.
Why is it that Lola and others are not talking?
After chief’s death, there was a meeting between the 22 wives and Kola at Abiola‘s house in Lagos where he issued a lot of threats that anybody who tried to compete with him over the properties will be strangulated.
Did he use the word “strangulate?”
I swear to God he did and I am sure that must have discouraged some of them from going further in the struggle to claim their rights. In my meeting with Kola, he threatened me a lot and I reported him to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who advised him to do all that is right by all of us.
Are you missing Chief Abiola?
Everybody misses him because he was one person from whom we drew a lot of inspiration. Those of us being harassed today miss him the more. No day has ever passed without I and the children, discussing him.
Then why are you in Court? Why not allow the family to wade in?
I am in court because I detest injustice and victimisation. May be you are right. Look at it this way: I knew how much Kola enjoyed abroad as a student. He used good cars and lived like a king among his colleagues. Why should my own children be denied of such opportunities because the father is no more to fend for them? On several occasions I asked him to release chief’s property, at least, whatever belongs to my children and he refused. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo more than twice intervened and Kola was advised to do the right thing since he is the one that knows virtually everything about chief’s estate. I suspected that something was wrong and that was the reason I applied for a copy of the will to have an insight into what has become of Chief Abiola’s wealth. Even after obtaining a copy of the will, I still pleaded with Kola to act as the first son but he refused.
Why are other surviving wives not parties to the suit?
I think it has got to a stage where each would fight for herself. Apart from that, Abiola’s family is such a large family that if we all have to wait for a meeting to be convened before we can do anything, nothing at all would be done.
What is the relationship between you and other wives?
Cordial. But I feel that if we as owners of the properties are not talking or complaining about the people sitting on our wealth, how can we expect the government to assist us? God knows that I tried my best while my husband was alive; I was part of the struggle and I pray that everything would be settled. On my part, I did everything to see that the matter did not get to this stage. Believe me, I knelt down to beg Kola to assist his younger ones and he rebuffed me. Unfortunately, it appears going to court is the only option to get what belongs to us.
You must have seen the original copy of the will. Have you?
Never. Rodney Timpson, Abiola’s solicitor sent me a photocopy of the supposed will and that’s what was read to us at FRA Williams’ chambers in Lagos. I remember asking for the original and Chief Williams waved the photocopy and dissociated himself from this will. He said that they only hired his chambers to read the will. Even before the will was read, we had an encounter with Chief FRA Williams chambers.
What was the encounter?
On a Saturday morning, I woke up in my flat at Abiola Crescent (Lagos) and I talked to a few of MKO’s wives about retaining a lawyer for those of us who do not stay in the house. I called Titi Biobaku and Peju known as ‘mama Wakeel’ and I explained to them the need for us to get a lawyer to represent us and our children. I suggested the late FRA Williams. They agreed and we visited the man whom I have never visited in his chambers. Baba (FRA) talked to us that day forgetting that he was a lawyer and said he thought that we all came with Kola who just left less than two minutes before our arrival at the office. He said Kola came with a big book with trust documents and they both read everything and in the end, he advised him to go and read everything to his family. We were confused as to why baba did not take the will, and there and then, I expressed my disappointment. Baba apologised to us.
Specifically in that will what did Chief Abiola bequeath to you and your children?
He gave us something reasonable. But that is not the reason for going to court.
At what stage is this case before the London court?
Kola and the other executors have been mandated to produce the proper estate statement which they have refused to do and that is the reason we have not got a clear picture about the estate.
I want to make myself clear that those foreign banks are sitting on Abiola’s wealth. They cannot deny this allegation. Abiola’s lawyer, banker and others have a duty of disclosure. My information was that some of these foreign firms had used Abiola’s money to open a trust for their children and we are here deceiving ourselves.
In the suit before Abuja High Court, you joined some other defendants. Who are the others?
They are: PlatinumHabib Bank PLC where the first plaintiff is the chairman, First Registrars Nigeria Limited, Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Each of them have a role to play in resolving the issue.
My allegation is that some of the properties have been converted and the plan is to declare Abiola bankrupt to cover up their tracks. For example, Kola has no business being the chairman of the Bank PHB and Summit Oil until everybody knows his or her status in the original will they are hiding from the world. It is very heartless to think that one person or a group of persons would sit on the estate and expect the rest of us to keep quiet. That is vengeful and heartless behaviour and those are negative virtues Abiola was unknown for in his life time.
advertisement
advertisement
