Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu Estate confirms sole Power of Attorney holder

A sole holder of power of attorney has been confirmed for the estate of the late Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu in Lagos, following the withdrawal of a suit filed by some family members and the subsequent striking out of the case by Justice O. Mabekoye of the Ogun State high court sitting in Abeokuta.

Adamakin investment and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele were confirmed as sole holder of the power of attorney of the Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu Estate after elders of two arms of the family; the Shobowale family and the Lumosa family, decided to find solutions to the rift rather than wash their dirty linens outside.

Efforts to settle the matter by some influential including family friends this ancestral Yoruba family led to the applicant counsel, Mr J.O.Ogunbiyi, filing an application before the court, seeking to discontinue the case and the court granted the request.

Justice Mebekoya while ruling on the application noted that there was an affidavit in support of the application sworn by a man identified as Gafar Babatunde Ibrahim, to the effect that the family had indeed settled their differences and therefore there is no need to go on with the matter.

The late Efunroye Tinubu left vast landed resources but crisis erupted among the defendants in 2019, when some members of the board of trustees of the Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu Estate went to court challenging the legal status of Adamakin Investment and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele as the sole holders of the power of attorney to the estate.

While the matter was in court, several versions of the reason’s why the families were in court was postulated. However, having discovered the truth of the matter following the peace move, they decided to pull the matter out of court for peace to reign.

In defending the suit, Barrister Kunle Awoma, counsel to Adamakin and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele has submitted before the court that the Late Iyalode Efunroye Tinubu family consists of two branches and these are the Sobowale family and the Lumosa family, adding that in order to recover part of the estate which covers 16 local government areas in Lagos state which had been encroached upon by strangers and to further harmonise the interest of the entire family and wade off impostors, the family unanimously agreed between the two branches that a board of trustees should be constituted to administer the affairs of the estate.

And consequently, the heads of the two families and two accredited representatives of the two branches of the estate approached the court sometimes in the year 2000 for appointment of trustees, pursuant to which the court made an order on April 29, 2020, and had appointed Rev Musiliu Adio Bakare, Chief Sulaimon Alani Sanni, Mrs Fausat Alausa as well as the late Chief Adams Bilade Lahan as the four trustees to the estate representing the Lumosa branch and the Sobowale family.

They further stated that as a result of their inability to handle the complexities involved in the running of affairs of the entire estate, the trustees gave the power of attorney to Adamakin Investment and Works Limited and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele sometimes in August 2012, to act on their behalf.

With the family rift now settled, Adamakin Investment and Works Limited and Chief Akinfolabi Akindele have been confirmed by all branches of the family as the sole holder of Power of Attorney for the lyalode Efunroye Tinubu Estate.