The legal battle over the landed properties belonging to Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, in Lagos State has taken another dimension as the directors of the company have threatened to drag Lagos State government to court over its alleged role in the lease of one of the properties in Ikoyi, Lagos which is now a subject of a major dispute in the Ojukwu family.
The OTL was founded by the late Sir LP Odumegwu Ojukwu, father of the former Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, to manage the assets he acquired in Lagos State and other parts of the country.
Several cases had been instituted in court by the directors over the controversial leasing of the properties by the late Ikemba Nnewi with a view to recovering them or have the rent reviewed.
Besides, the directors alleged that rent running into millions of naira from the properties in Lagos were being collected by Ojukwu’s widow, who is currently Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, through an estate management firm engaged by her late spouse without remitting same to the company.
Mrs. Ojukwu is party to most of the cases now pending in court over the landed properties.
The threat by the Ojukwu family to sue Lagos State government, Sunday Vanguard learnt, is as a result of the discovery in a lease agreement that an unnamed Lagos State Commissioner signed the document approving the lease between OTL and an investment firm Diplomat Investment Limited on behalf of the state governor.
“The purported approval in 2008 by the Lagos State Commissioner on behalf of the governor is being scrutinized and legal action is being considered,” said a member of the Ojukwu family, who explained that 13 Ojora Rd, Ikoyi which is also 13 Alexander was the last residence the late Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu in Lagos.
The directors said the property never belonged to the late Ikemba and was not willed to him by their late father, stressing that the N5 million rent per annum on the property was a big joke as “the going rate for the location and size of such property is N60m to N100m or more.”
