Children Of Jimoh Mumuni Fight Over Father’s Estate
By Our Reporter
The children of late industrialist, Jimoh Alabi Mumuni are at each other’s jugular over the sharing of his multi-billion naira estate.
Although Alabi was a very successful businessman by all standards, the wealth left behind by the late devout Muslim and ardent family man seems to have polarized the family.
It was gathered that Mumuni had, before his death some decades ago, done what every right thinking man does; leave a will for his wife and six children.
But the fight over his estate appears to have turned dirty, as other children are accusing their elder sibling, Gbemisola Mumuni- Numa, of disregarding their father’s will on how their estates will be managed for the benefit of the children and their late mother.
They added that there are insinuations that Gbemisola Mumuni- Numa is bent on having all that belongs to them for herself, adding that she has became insensitive to the needs of others, including their mother, whom she allegedly subjected to spend her last days in a slum and in penury.
Also, in one of the documents made available to journalists, Mumuni-Numa never related to her mother as a daughter would to a mother and she did not grant her mother the money she needs for her treatment.
In a letter dated March 25th, 2003, written through Kunle Sofola, the executor of late Chief Jimoh Mumuni’s estate, Tolu Mumuni wrote that their mother is critically ill and practically bed ridden and as such, needs a total knee replacement operation on both her knees at a cost of £9, 445.
According to the letter, “If she does not have the operation, she will eventually lose all mobility and will no longer be able to walk and her quality of life will be much poorer than it is right now.”
She added in the letter that, “can you please start the process to raise funds for the cost of both operations from the Estate and/or NISCO in Lagos, whichever is most appropriate.”
In the lawyer’s response, he said that after a meeting with Gbemisola and Tunde, another of their siblings, they both said that they were not aware that their mother was sick and was even travelling abroad for medical treatment and that they were not happy about the development, which made the lawyer agreed with the suggestions put forward by Tolu.
In his response letter, he said: “The meeting also resolved that for you to commit the estate or the company to over N2million medical bills, you ought to have informed them before hand so that both estate and company can advise you as to their financial capabilities to fund such medical treatment. As for the company, the management made me to understand that the company’s current bank balance is N1.2 debit.”
In addition, “in view of the foregoing, both the estate and company find it extremely difficult at the moment to accede and I suggest that you get in touch with your siblings so that some funds could be raised individually.”
Tolu’s letter was not the only letter written to Gbemisola. Other siblings, including their mother, wrote to Gbemisola, appealing to her to make funds available for their mother’s treatment.
On another occasion, their mother had requested for financial help to travel to Port Harcourt for her niece- Akidiba’s burial on April 18, 2006, but in her response on April 20, 2006, she addressed her mother as ‘Dear Mrs. Mumuni’, explaining that she could not grant her mother’s financial request because the company – NISCO, was experiencing cash flow crunch due to repositioning of the company.
“We presently have little or no savings deposit funds from which we can draw, as we have to meet our financial commitments to those firms and persons providing us with professional services even as we battle to repayments,” she wrote.
Thereafter, the younger siblings tasked themselves to take care of their sick mother.
However, her siblings said that they were shocked when the news filtered out that Gbemisola donated the sum of N28 million to Fountain of Life Church while their mother was still lying critically sick in the hospital.
The family members took it up, wrote several letters to the church for a refund, to which the church refunded N1.9M promising to refund the balance later.
In a letter dated October 3rd, 2008, Sope Mumuni wrote to Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, the head of the church, complaining about his sister’s behaviour towards the family.
“My mother is still alive and your member, Gbemi Numa stopped paying her medical bills back in April. We have the money to make our mother’s last few years comfortable. Gbemi chooses instead to make these years of her life sorrowful. Over the years, she has demonstrated her lack of compassion for anyone other than herself.
“ My father’s will made provisions for his entire family and I believe that it is unfair that tithe payments were made without our consent or agreement,” he wrote.
He also added that the payment of the tithe to the church was illegal and a misappropriation of the company’s funds.
According to Sope, “I understand that the payment of tithe to be a personal sacrifice based on individual faith. My father was a proud Muslim and payment to a Christian church ought not to have been made from his wealth. While Gbemi’s siblings and mother were facing difficulty, she ignored their human and legal rights and illegally paid tithe to your church. In the thirteen years since my father’s death, his grave, even till today, does not have a headstone.”
Since then, the family is still battling the Fountain of Life Church and Gbemisola over the money and poor management of the estate. After several letters since then, the church has offered little or no succor.
Sope, on August 9, this year, wrote a four page missive addressed to the founder of the church, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, where he detailed his battle with his siblings to retrieve the money from the church.
He insisted that enough time had passed since 2009 when the church refund the N1.9million for the full restitution to be made.
He also demanded for the full return of the money paid to the church by Gbemisola.
In the letter, he serially accused Gbemisola and the church of colluding in denying the family of their share of the estate.
But before then, he had also reminded Gbemisola on April 27, 2016 of her promise to refund the money used by her for tithe in the church.
He said that she made the promise at the NISCO AGM which held on March 14, 2016.
The battle has continued to rage since then between the siblings. Some members of the family, who spoke with newsmen, insisted that they are not willing to allow Gbemisola run down the estate of their father.
They also maintained that they want their money back from the church.
Just before she died on July 21, 2009, their mother, Kariboba, had made a wish in a letter to her children where she told them to unite and reconcile “before God calls me home. I appreciate all those who stood for me morally and financially, up to date. For those who prove themselves to be the proverbial prodigal children, I fully accept. I know that it is difficult, but I pray that you will find it in your hearts to forget all that is past, then come together as workers in the vineyard.”
When contacted, Gbemisola said that the money paid to the church did not belong to the family, adding that the complaints were coming from desperate people.
But when contacted, Pastor Bayo Kujore, said that the church actually refunded the sum of N1.9million to the Mumunis when the issue first came up. That was following a directive by the Senior Pastor of the church that all monies from the NISCO companies traceable to the church be refunded.
He said that the church was surprised about the claims of N23million being claimed by some members of the family, saying that the church is currently awaiting the records from the aggrieved parties to prove the said amount.
“We only pray that God will sort all these out. It is really unfortunate. We will keep working on it. We have done everything to save our church from disrepute. We are not fraudsters. We have actually waited for them to come for conflict resolution. We did not see them. This is money that was freely donated. We did not force them to donate to our church.”
