The
battler over the management of some properties belonging to Ojukwu
Transport Limited, OTL, has taken another dimension as the wife of the
late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ambassador Bianca
Ojukwu, through her lawyer, has insisted that the estate management
agent, allegedly appointed by her late husband, Mr. Emmanuel Omuojine
of Omuojine & Associates, would remain in charge of the five
properties in Lagos.
Directors
of OTL, Professor Joseph Ojukwu (Chairman), Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Mr.
Lotanna P. Ojukwu, Dr. P. Ike Ojukwu, Arc Edward Ojukwu and Mr.
Lotanna A. Ojukwu, had, in a recent public notice, disowned the
agent, saying that at no time was he appointed by the company’s board of
directors to manage any of their properties.
The properties in question are, 13
Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi (now 13 Ojora Road, Ikoyi) Lagos; 32A Commercial
Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 29 Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos; 30 Gerrard Road,
Ikoyi, Lagos and 4 Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Counsel for Mrs. Ojukwu, Emeka
Onyemelukwe of Emeka Onyemelukwe & Associates, in a letter, dated
May 28, in response to a letter by the OTL counsel, Ifeanyi Okumah of
Sterling Attorneys, Enugu asking Omuojine to hands off the properties,
informed the directors that the management firm was appointed by the
late Ojukwu to manage the said properties under his care and was not
relieved of that responsibility until the late Ikemba Nnewi’s demise.
Okumah, writing on behalf of the
OTL Directors, in a letter dated May 17, 2012, informed Omuojine and
Associates that Massey Udegbe and Co had been duly appointed management
agent of OTL properties in Lagos and that he (Omuojine) should not in
any manner interfere with the firm (Massey Udegbe) in carrying out its
duties.
“You are reminded of the serious
consequences of not adhering to the above and that to continue to
parade yourself and/or your company as an agent of OTL constitutes
economic breaches which are criminal in nature and highly
unprofessional,” Okumah stated.
He further asked Omuojine to
provide OTL with itemized list of all monies he collected while
managing the said properties for several years and remit same to the
company, adding that he should among other thing “cease and desist
from holding yourself out to be their managing agent”.
Besides, the OTL counsel requested
Omuojine to furnish the company with concrete documentary evidence of
his appointment as the company’s managing agent including the
management agreement and power of attorney purportedly issued to him as
well as the statement of account of the funds so far collected.
But
replying the OTL Directors on behalf of Mrs. Ojukwu, Emeka
Onyemelukwe, her counsel, said “Messrs Omuojine & Associates were
appointed by late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to manage those
properties under his care”, adding that “they have not been relieved of
that responsibility by late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu until his
demise.”
“As our client, the next of kin, to
the deceased Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has not also relieved
them of that responsibility. We therefore see your demands from them
as spurious and fishy,” Onyemelukwe stated, explaining that the
properties of OTL had for many years been managed by three separate
branches of the family.”
He disclosed that Omuojine manages
some of the properties under the care of the late Ikemba Nnewi,
insisting that “Massey Udegbe & Co has no business disturbing the
properties under the care and management of Omuojine & Associates.”
“May we then use this opportunity
to warn that you (Okumah) call your client, Messrs Massey Udegbe &
Co, and the unknown director who briefed you to order. They should not
in any way disturb the tenants, who reside, and or carry on their
legitimate businesses on those properties under the care and management
of Messrs Omuojine & Associates, in any form or manner inimical to
those tenants’ interests. If they do so, we may have to resort to
appropriate measure/s to stop them,” Mrs. Ojukwu’s lawyers further
wrote.
Source: Vanguard
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