Lagos: Families fight over owner of collapsed Ikoyi building, Femi Osibona's properties

 

A few days after his body was recovered from the rubble, the wife and brothers of Femi Osibona, owner of the 21-storey building that collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State on Monday, November 1, are reported to be at loggerheads over his properties.

SaharaReporters reports that the wife, who had just flown in from the United States, tried gaining access to her husband's apartment along Mosley Road, Ikoyi

but was denied access by some of Osibona’s brothers.

According to the report, Mrs Osibona who had four children for the late Femi is presently in a fight to finish with the brothers who are laying claim to the deceased’s array of exotic cars, and other assets. The family allegedly denied the wife access to the deceased’s apartment because there were bundles of money, keys to expensive vehicles and others in the house.''

According to the reports, the two family factions came with Mobile Police Officers (MOPOL) after which they were all locked out by residents of the building who are neighbours of the deceased. 

A source told the publication:

“The brothers and wife of Femi Osibona are fighting over access to bank details of the deceased and keys to expensive vehicles. This is despite the fact that the man has a wife and four kids. The body is yet to be buried; they are already fighting over his property. His wife was at the site yesterday, shouting at his brothers. I think there are loads of cash in the house. 

“Femi's brothers have stopped his wife and daughter from getting into his apartment. It is such a mess that money has become the root of all this evil. The brother asked the wife to go and stay at the hotel and she claimed she has no money to go there.”  

Another source was quoted as saying: 

''The woman came to the house with MOPOL; the family also engaged the services of MOPOL. On each side, there were about twenty people shouting on one another. When it was already midnight, we chased every one of them out of the house. They were outside till midnight shouting, swearing, boasting and threatening. Instead of mourning, these people were fighting over assets. They have also engaged popular lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, on the matter."

Late Osibona's body was discovered among others during the rescue operation on Thursday. There had been concerns over the whereabouts of Osibona, Wale Bob-Oseni, his friend, and others trapped in the building.

Bob-Oseni, who was to catch a flight to the US, briefly made a detour to see the project at the invitation of the developer but did not walk out alive. On Monday, the building located on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos collapsed with a yet-to-be-ascertained number of persons still trapped beneath the rubble. The death toll currently stands at over 40 persons.