Matilda Omonaiye/
The children of Mrs. Oluwayemisi Ajayi, widow of Dr. Tosin Ajayi of First Foundation Medical, have debunked reports on social media that the Federal High Court, Lagos, has awarded a former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest, 50 percent of their father’s estate.
Clarifying the judgment, which was given yesterday, first child of Mrs. Oluwayemisi Ajayi, the deceased’s wife, Mrs. Olutomi Deru, said “the court’s order only granted Prest and her daughter permission to institute their main action and also restrained our mum from running the company pending the determination of the main suit”.
She further said the orders were temporary and did not grant Prest any share in the estate of their father.
“Regardless of whether there was any evidence of the service of a hearing notice before the court, it is quite puzzling that the judge would disregard our mother’s application to set aside its earlier orders that was before it and went on to hear the Plaintiffs’ application without giving the Defendants another opportunity to appear before the court,” Deru further stated.
Asked if she and her siblings were ready to accommodate Prest’s daughter, Tomisin, in the estate of their father, Deru said that that has always been their position.
According to her, even though their Dad never introduced Tomisin to any member of the family as his daughter, they chose from the outset to accept her as their dad’s daughter in good faith.
“In fact, shortly after our dad’s funeral, we wrote to Tomisin to join as an administratrix in our application to obtain Letters of Administration for our Dad’s estate, but Tomisin turned down the offer preferring to go it alone. We later discovered that Tomisin and her mum had filed for Letters of Administration several months before our dad’s funeral,” Deru said.
She insisted that her mother, Mrs. Oluwayemisi Ajayi, remained the legal wife of her father till death as the couple never divorced.
Reports say matter before Justice T.G. Ringim has been transferred to the Administrative Judge for re-assignment and no date has been fixed for further hearing.
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