The Lagos State High Court will hear the withdrawal of a joinder application filed by Afamefuna and Nwachukwu, sons of Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, on March 10, 2025.
The application, dated December 16, 2024, seeks to retract their earlier request to be joined as parties in a 2011 property suit involving Ojukwu Transport Limited.
The original suit, marked LD/794/2011, was filed by Ogbonna Ojukwu and others against OTL, with judgment delivered in 2018.
Justice Adedayo Oyebanji had awarded possession of OTL’s Lagos properties, including No. 29 Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi, to the company.
Following the judgment, OTL executed a warrant of possession for all its Lagos properties, completing the process in July 2022.
Afamefuna and Nwachukwu, who had claimed they were unaware of the original suit, applied last year to join the case as interested parties and sought exemption from the already executed warrant.
Late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was a party to the suit until his demise in 2011.
At the last hearing for the fresh application for the joinder on April 22, 2024, OTL Director, Dr P Ike Ojukwu, their agent, Mr Massey Udegbe and lawyer, Chief Ifeanyi Okumah were in court while Bianca, and her sons and their lawyers were absent.
The case was adjourned till March 10, 2025, for a hearing.
Justice A. M. Lawal had in the 2022 judgment granted a restraining order against interference with Afamefuna and Nwachukwu’s possession of the properties pending the harmonization of Ojukwu properties by OTL.
Claiming to be unaware of the matter before Justice Onyebanji, Afamefuna and Nwachukwu last year served a ‘Notice of Disobedience of Court order’ on OTL, the Ojukwu and other tenants of the property.
In their application seeking to be joined in case before Justice Onyebanji, the Bianca sons claimed that they were not aware of the pendency of the suit and were not included as interested parties in the case.
They argued that it would amount to a miscarriage of justice for the matter to be conclusively decided without their input as the issues in the case affect their interest.
Meanwhile, OTL had last year, following the judgment of Justice Lawal harmonised the management of its assets and reaffirmed Massey Udegbe and Co as its estate agent and published the same in two national newspapers.
Of the five properties in Bianca and son’s 2012 suit, OTL claims that it had not been paid rent for 12 years (N144m) by Uche Obilor/West African Offshore Limited, occupants of 30 Gerard Rd,Ikoyi, Lagos.
It also claimed that the occupants of 32a Commercial Avenue,Yaba, Foursquare Gospel Church, has not paid OTL any rent since 2017 while 4 Macpherson Rd,Ikoyi has been under Police ‘lock and key’ since July 2015.
It also insisted that 29 Oyinkan Abayomi Rd, Ikoyi has been unoccupied for over 20 years while 13 Ojora Rd, Ikoyi is in good condition with good tenant-landlord understanding.(Punch)
