Niger Delta

Benin monarch upholds court judgment on inheritance

The Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, has upheld the judgment of an Edo State High Court, sitting in Benin, which ordered Madam Enoghayin and Miss. Otasowie Ogiemwonyi to take legal and physical possession of the late Mr. Washington Osaretin Ogiemwonyi’s property known as 7A, Upper Sokponba Road in Benin City, after granting approval for his burial rites in accordance with Benin customs and tradition.

Recall that Justice H. A. Courage-Ogbebor had, on July 29, 2022, delivered a judgment in a suit No. B/421/2021 between Thomas Ogbomo Ogiemwonyi and Mrs. Odion Ugbogbo (who sued on behalf of the children of Madam Igbinomwanhia (claimants) and Madam Enoghayin Osunde and Miss Otasowie Ogiemwonyi (defendants).

The court declared that the late Ogiemwonyi, as the eldest son of his late father, Ogiemwonyi Agbonkpolor and having performed the final burial of his father, inherited exclusively the house known as No 7A, Upper Sokponba Road, Benin City, to the exclusion of the claimants and siblings, being the Igiogbe (family house) of the late Ogiemwonyi Agbonkpolor.

Justice Courage-Ogbebor ordered that the defendants immediately bury their husband/father in conjunction with Ogiemwonyi’s family as they have desired.

The court thereafter restrained the claimants by themselves, their agents, servants or thugs and privies from interfering with the planning, preparation and burial of the late Washington Osaretin Ogiemwonyi at No. 7A, Upper Sokponba Road, Benin City, by the defendants.

Unsatisfied with the decision of the court, some aggrieved members of the Ogiemwonyi family took Washington Ogiemwonyi’s widow (Madam Enoghayin Osunde) and his eldest daughter, Miss Otasowie Ogiemwonyi, before the palace of the Oba of Benin, seeking to upturn the judgment of the court.

After listening to the testimonies of the parties, chairman of the committee, Chief Stanley Esere, who was joined by other palace chiefs, held that it is an uncontroverted fact that the property was shared and distributed to the eldest son of the family, late Washington Osaretin Ogiemwonyi and exclusively his eldest child after his demise and final burial rites had been concluded.

Accordingly, Chief Obamwonyi ordered the defendants to take possession of the property without any hindrance or challenge by the claimants and berated the claimants for making life unbearable for Madam Enoghayin Osunde (Washington Osaretin Ogiemwonyi’s widow) and Miss Otasowie Ogiemwonyi and her siblings.

The palace committee held that evidence of Mr Andrew Omoigui, who deposed to the palace committee that no family member of Washington Osaretin Ogiemwonyi whose body was kept in a morgue for 23 months, was neither informed or aware of Washington’s burial, was untenable after the court had given the nodor the children to bury their father.

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