Abiola’s children petition Buhari to intervene over the “unfair” division of their father’s property

The children of the late Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late June 12, 1993 presidential election winner, Moshood Abiola, wrote to President Muhammed Buhari asking him to throw himself into a family crisis over sharing their father’s property.

The children, led by Lekan Abiola, claimed in the appeal letter, “Report on Decades of Fraud,” that after more than two decades after their parents died, some unnamed family members “continued to deny them their rights”. their shares in the properties of the late business mogul inside and outside Nigeria. “

complaint

“Your Excellency, we know that you are determined to build a new Nigeria that is law and order, and so you want to be informed of the matter before it gets out of hand,” the letter reads.

“Our father was a man of equity and as such he started businesses that reflected his side. In all of his companies, he made sure that no child received a single share and no child was officially appointed director. Even at Habib Bank (now Keystone Bank) he gave equal shares to children of different mothers (Kola and Lekan received equal shares and this can be verified), ”they wrote

The children said their late father had appointed some of his wives as directors in his companies, saying that their late mother (Kudirat), for example, was a director at Abiola Farms and the late Simbiat was also a director at RCN. was appointed.

The children said, “Each woman received no more than a single share.”

They added that “strong evidence of this has been sent to President Buhari along with the original copy of the letter.”

Fraud by unnamed family members

“However, five years after our father’s death, some family members fraudulently and criminally inserted their names into our father’s businesses, including the most active one called RCN, on whose behalf our father bought most of his shares in Habib Bank,” the children claimed .

“After taking control of this company, these people were able to manipulate the shares of Bank PHB and borrow money from commercial banks using our father’s assets with the aim of defaulting and impoverishing his other children,” they added.

“Even though our father stipulated in his will that his entire property should be divided equally between all of his children. This should have been done over two decades ago. They were also able to use their new status at RCN to influence other companies such as Abiola Farms and Abiola Bookshop, in which RCN is also a major shareholder. “

According to the letter, “several cases have been filed attempting to declare their actions to be fraudulent, but the court has repeatedly adjourned the suits”.

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“Even some other members who act as administrators at Kola have joined this case against these fraudulent insertions for fear that their names will be tarnished. It’s worth noting that any open disagreement between administrators will void it.

More claims, demands

“In the meantime, the perpetrators continue to act on the basis of an invalid power of attorney that did not do its job. They never account for qualified beneficiaries, but were designed to publish the names of children who allegedly failed the DNA tests, while those who passed the test (including all of our mother’s children) since our deaths Father’s received nothing more than two decades ago.

“The British property that our father had secured for our mother was even illegally sold a few months after she was murdered and the proceeds were not paid to us (we were only told that some debts related to the estate had to be paid billions of naira) . In addition, the money awarded to her was withheld by us while other wives had the British properties secured for them converted into their names and received funds as well.

The injured children asked Mr. Buhari to intervene in the following areas:

* The CAC should be asked to correct the criminal changes made to RCN and revert the company to its original form when our father died owning 499,999 shares and the late Alhaja Simbiat owned 1 share (in other words, it should withdraw) the 60 percent and 40 percent illegally given to both Agbo and Deji Abiola).

* Then the CAC should immediately declare the company moribund. All proceeds from the sale of their shares in PHB and proceeds from Summit Oil (using the fact that RCN is a shareholder in Summit Oil) should be returned to the rightful heirs as intended by our father.

* Your Excellency, the CAC should ensure that there is only one real RCN and that any company that looks like RCN (which was founded after my father’s death) is declared a scam and deregistered.

* The protection of our mother’s status as director at Abiola Farms, which means that only our surviving children can replace her position through a legal process that has already been carried out by two higher courts.

* All investigative authorities should act quickly to bring the perpetrators to justice, as this is a criminal offense and not a civil matter. The perpetrators must reimburse all unlawfully earned funds after deducting the claims to which their mother is entitled in their will or the current value of the property denied to her, as was the case in our case). These people should face the full and swift wrath of the law to serve as a powerful example and deterrent to others who wish to commit similar crimes.

* The NNPC and DPR should be directed to stop doing business with anyone who claims to have authority under any name and guise over the Summit Oil blocs, particularly because they are illegal directors of RCN. All agreements made with any legal person under this Agreement should be declared null and void.

* We urge you to order an objective investigation and we hope we see justice on this criminal case. We know that the other party would also communicate with you and we look forward to it.

Mr Abiola, the celebrated winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, died in controversial circumstances after being imprisoned by the Sani Abacha regime.

Mr Abiola had won what was widely known as free and fair by a landslide, but was denied his mandate by Ibrahim Babangida, a military dictator who wanted to extend his rule.

His wife Kudirat was murdered while trying to regain his (Abiola) mandate.

Many years after Mr. Abiola’s death, pro-democratic activists and groups campaigned for posthumous recognition of the deceased politician. However, their calls were ignored by successive governments.

Part of the group’s demands was to reschedule the traditional annual Democracy Day celebrated by Nigerians from May 29th to June 12th for MKO (as he was affectionately known), confirmation of his election victory, and the award ceremony to honor the national honor.

The struggle finally paid off when it was posthumously bestowed Nigeria’s highest honor by President Buhari and June 12 was officially recognized as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.