Ojukwu's will finally published revealing that he had a love child with a Sierra Leonean woman

CHIEF Odumegwu Ojukwu's will has finally been published over seven years after his death revealing that he had a love child known as Tenny Haman who have fathered with a Sierra Leonean woman when he was the commander of the Fifth Battalion in Kano in the 1960s.

Highly revered across southeast Nigeria over his role during the civil war when he led the breakaway republic of Biafra, Chief Ojukwu passed away in November 2011. His funeral, which was attended by the then President Goodluck Jonathan and former President jerry Rawlings of Ghana, attracted mammoth crowds and his body was carried around the five states that make up the southeast as well as the nation's capital, Abuja.

Following his burial, however, Ojukwu's offspring have been involved in several legal battles over his property, mainly due to the fact that he had about four different wives. In 2014 for instance, Ikemefuna Ojukwu and his brother Chukwuma Ojukwu, instituted a suit against their uncles, Dr Joseph Ojukwu, Dr Ike Ojukwu and Lotanna Ojukwu and their mother over their father's property.

Yesterday, Chief Ojukwu's long-awaited will was read out and his last widow Bianca, expressed shock  over the appearance of the name of the hitherto unknown daughter Tenny. Bianca said her husband never spoke about her while he was alive, nor mentioned the fact that he had a child with a Sierra Leonean woman.

Chief Ojukwu's will was presented to the family by the chief registrar of the Enugu High Court, Dennis Ekoh, with Bianca getting the lion’s share of his property. Other Ojukwu children listed in the will include Chukwuemeka Jnr, Mmegha, Okigbo, Ebele, Chineme, Afam and Nwachukwu.

According to the will, the late Ikemba of Nnewi’s Casabianca Lodge at in GRA Enugu, two of his properties at Jabi and Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory as well as all his money and personal effects belong to his widow Bianca. She will also replace him as the trustee in the family company Ojukwu Transport and will get two plots of land in Nnewi.

Chief Ojukwu, however added a caveat to the Nnewi deal saying that Bianca will forfeit the land if she remarries. His eldest son, Emeka Jnr, got the family house at Nnewi, while the newly-mentioned daughter, Tenny Haman, got Jubilee Hotel, located in Zaria, Kaduna State.

Bianca said: “It was a fair will. This time round, he did not disappoint us."

Furthermore, Chief Ojukwu shared other landed property in the village among all his children, listing the trustees and executors of the will to include Bianca, Emeka Jnr and James Chukwuneme. However, the most shocking aspect of the will was the conspicuous omission of Chief Ojukwu’s look-a-like son Debechukwu Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

Debechukwu, who had persistently claimed to be Chief Ojukwu’s eldest child, had been locked in serious battle with other members of the family. Only recently, he filed a N100m lawsuit against Bianca and six others at a Federal High Court in Lagos, accusing them of preventing him from managing his father’s estate and performing the dust to dust rites during his burial.

Reacting to the will last night, Debechukwu said he was yet to see a copy of it but was quick to add that his exclusion from the will would not in any way alter his DNA, pointing out that he is not hungry. He added that a will is not sacrosanct as it could be manipulated or forged and it can also be challenged in court.