Family of late music maestro Sir Victor Uwaifo has disclaimed alleged plans by a group of people purportedly led by Uwaifo’s manager, Chris Eburu, to mark the first anniversary of the passage of their father.
Eburu is currently facing trial over alleged forgery of the will of Uwaifo.
Speaking to journalists in Benin City, the family members including Uwaifo’s eldest child, Mrs Ogbomwen Reden, his son Goodman Uwaifo and other members also accused
Eburu of using a name linked to their father to deceive the public into participating in the programme.
According to Goodman Uwaifo, “We know our father is a global figure that can be celebrated anywhere by his fans but not somebody who is already having issues and facing criminal charges. He is using a platform connected to my father’s Revelation Tourism Palazo to mobilise people for the event and we frown at that. My eldest brother is in the US, he is not aware of this, about eight, out of our father’s 12 children are not aware of this and they are not part of it.”
Also, Mrs Reden alleged that the manager altered her late father’s will and brought in witnesses believed to be unknown to his father to sign as witnesses in the will.
She said, “the witnesses are not the kind of persons my late father would associate with. My father cannot have an unmarried woman to sign his will.
“My father was a very hardworking man till he died and I will not allow anybody to reap what he has laboured for. I am fighting for my father’s legacy”, she said.
The Okaegbe for the burial of late Uwaifo, Mr. Udinyiwe Obaretin said he believed that some members of the Uwaifo family were conniving with his manager to do what he was doing.
When contacted, Eburu said the issue of forgery was a matter already before the law court and would comment on it.
On the anniversary, he said the Uwaifo’s Revelation Tourism Palazzo Centre is an association and does not need the approval of his late boss children to do so, insisting that the consent of the family was sought before the plans for the event.
