Majority of the properties of late Biafran warlord and Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu will go to his widow, Bianca, as contained in his will, read on Friday by Chief Registrar of the Enugu High Court, Mr Dennis Ekoh.
Ojukwu transferred Casabianca Lodge at No. 7, Forest Crescent, GRA, Enugu, two properties at Jabi and Kuje in Abuja, large sums of money and other personal effects to Bianca, whom he also appointed as his replacement for the trustee in the family company, Ojukwu Transport Ltd.
He also gave her two plots of land in his village at Nnewi. However, Bianca is to lose the plots of land if she remarries.
The session was witnessed by Bianca; Mr. Val Nwosu, Ojukwu’s first cousin; and Mr. Mike Ejemba. His children were all absent.
The surprise of the day was Ojukwu’s identification of one Tenny Haman among the children he listed, the others being Chukwuemeka Jnr, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam and Nwachukwu.
The first son, Emeka Jnr., got the family house at Nnewi, while the newly mentioned daughter, Tenny Haman, who was unknown throughout Ojukwu’s life, got the Jubilee Hotel located in Zaria, Kaduna State. Other landed properties were shared among the remaining children.
Ojukwu listed the trustees and executors of the will to include Bianca, Emeka Jnr and Mr. James Chukwuneme.
In her reaction, Bianca, who is Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain, expressed satisfaction with its contents but could not hide her shock at the disclosure of a new daughter, whom her husband never mentioned.
Bianca Odinakachukwu, the sixth child of former Anambra State governor, Christian Onoh, and Ojukwu’s first son, Chukwuemeka, have not been best of friends since the late warrior’s death, and the reading of the will is expected to deal the coup de grace to their feud, at least on a superficial level.
Bianca was never expected to be popular among Ojukwu’s children, anyway, having married a husband that was over 30 years her senior. And even though Bianca — best remembered as the first African to win the Miss Continental beauty pageant — withstood heavy opposition from her own parents to marry Ojukwu, she is known to have once publicly admitted that while she had a happy marriage, she would never encourage her daughter to marry in similar fashion.
