85-year-old Woman Begs Court To Return Land Documents

An 85-year old woman, Mrs Henrietta Fawehinmi, has appealed to a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, to compel her son, Prof Hakeem Fawehinmi, to return the original title documents of her properties located in the state.

The octogenarian made the appeal in her statement of defence to be joined as a party in a suit brought before the court by the University lecturer.

Fawehinmi, in suit number PHC/4500/CS/2025 filed before the High Court, along with one of his siblings, are challenging the rightful ownership of a landed property in Orominike Layout, D/Line, Port Harcourt.

Mrs Henrietta prayed the court to ask her son to also return the original title documents of properties located at number 24 Nwachukwu Street, Iboloji Housing Estate, Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt, Number 17 Emenike Close, Rumuadaolu, Port Harcourt and Elekahia Housing Estate, Port Harcourt after paying him N82 million as a condition contained in his letter dated July 10, 2025.

Hakeem and his sister, Oluwafumi Fawehinmi, had filed a suit against one Ichie Ikenna-Onu, who allegedly purchased one of the properties from their mother (Henrietta).

Hakeem and his sister claimed that Ikenna-Onu erred by acquiring the property from their mother, hence, has no legal right to own the property.

The siblings, who are first and second claimants in the suit claimed that at a point, their late father, mother, himself (Hakeem) and another of their siblings, were made directors of Riettafa and Company Nigeria Limited and that his mother later willed the properties to her five children and made him an attorney to her estate.

But, the octogenarian mother, in her defence, dismissed the validity of any Will, insisting that she revoked the deeds of gift to her children when she discovered that the properties, rather than being a unifying factor, have become source of continuous contentions, rancour and enmity among her children.

According to the statement of defence as a party seeking to be joined in the suit, Henrietta said that her first son, Prof Hakeem allegedly abandoned her to die in her old age and induced her to transfer the properties contained in the will as a gift to him to take over in her lifetime without taking care of her, even after training him in school and opening a hospital for him in Port Harcourt, which he (Hakeem) allegedly sold off.

The 85-years-old woman noted how her children, especially the first and the second claimants who she sponsored abroad and took proper care of from childhood, never gave her money or took care of her, instead were interested in fighting over her properties.

Henrietta, in the application, further revealed that her first son, Hakeem, who is not a director in her company was able to remove her name as a signatory of her own company’s bank account and made himself the sole signatory and thereby shutting her out from her own company account.

She insisted that all her properties including the once at Plots 178, 179, and 201 Oromineke Layout, D/Line, Port Harcourt, which she sold to Ichie Ikenna-Onu, who is the first defendant in the suit, belonged to her and not to Rietaffa and Sons Nigeria Limited.

She explained that the only condition upon which she would not sell the remaining property is if her children come together as a family, reconcile all their age-long differences and begin to take care of her as their mother who toiled and laboured to give them the best in life.

However, in his statement of defence, the defendant in the suit, Ichie Ikenna-Onu denied knowledge of what is contained in paragraphs one to twenty-three of the statement of claim by the claimants and urged the court to dismiss their claims for being a gold digging exercise.