Estate Dispute: Court Adjourns Bizman’s Widow, Children’s Suit Till July 7

Justice Omolade Awope of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has adjourned the hearing of a preliminary objection filed by the widow of the Ashipa of Ife, Chief Stephen Obaloluwa Oyetade, Mrs Beatrice Oyetade, and her children, disputing the court’s jurisdiction to hear a matter concerning the administration of her late husband’s estate to July 7.

Justice Awope fixed the date to enable the claimants, Obayemi Oyetade and Mrs Grace Yemisi Oyetade, to file their responses to the application asking the court to dismiss their suit.

Mrs Oyetade, represented by her lawyer, George Oyeniyi, along with her children, Obafemi Oyetade, Dr Abigail Oyebola, and Daniel Oyetade, filed the notice of preliminary objection, claiming that the action is incompetent, statute-barred, and constitutes an abuse of court process.

In the substantive case, the claimants, Obayemi Oyetade and Mrs Grace Yemisi Oyetade, had urged the court to revoke the Letters of Administration granted to the Osun State Administrator-General and Public Trustee.

But in a preliminary objection and supporting affidavit, the defendants contended that the claimants failed to comply with pre-action requirements before commencing the suit and also alleged that the originating processes were not served on the defendants after the action was filed.

Chief Oyetade died intestate on August 6, 2015, and the Administrator-General and Public Trustee of Osun State was granted Letters of Administration over the estate on February 26, 2019.

The grant was subsequently resealed by the Probate Registry of the Lagos State High Court in August 2022 to cover estate properties situated in Lagos.

The defendants stated that the claimants had previously challenged the validity of the Letters of Administration in a suit before the Osun State High Court, Osogbo, seeking, among other reliefs, to invalidate and set aside the grant.

However, they claimed that the Osun State High Court dismissed the action in June 2023 and affirmed the powers of the Administrator-General and Public Trustee of Osun State to administer the estate.

At the last sitting of the court, the claimant’s lawyer, Kolade Ala, asked the court for an adjournment, as he had done in the last three proceedings, to enable him to regularise his client’s processes.

This was objected to by the defendants’ counsel, who argued that these numerous adjournments favour the Claimants, who are unlawfully in possession of the estate’s patrimony, to the detriment of his clients.

However, Justice Awope adjourned the case to July 7 to enable the claimants to respond to the application.