An 85-year-old woman, Mrs Henrietta Fawehinmi, has asked a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt to compel her son, Professor Hakeem Fawehinmi, to return the original title documents of several properties she owns in the state.
Professor Fawehinmi, a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Port Harcourt and the current Vice-Chancellor of a university in Abuja, is locked in a legal dispute with his mother following a suit challenging the ownership of one of the properties.
The request by Mrs Fawehinmi is contained in her statement of defence and application to be joined in Suit No. PHC/4500/CS/2025, earlier filed by Professor Fawehinmi and his sister, Oluwafumi Fawehinmi. The siblings are contesting the sale of a landed property located at Orominike Layout, D/Line, Port Harcourt.
In her court filings, Mrs Fawehinmi urged the court to order her son to release the original title documents of properties located at No. 24 Nwachukwu Street, Iboloji Housing Estate, Rumuigbo; No. 17 Emenike Close, Rumuadaolu; and Elekahia Housing Estate, all in Port Harcourt. She stated that she paid him ₦82 million, as contained in a letter dated July 10, 2025, as a condition for the release of the documents.
The disputed suit arose after the siblings sued one Ichie Ikenna-Onu, who purchased one of the properties from their mother. They argued that the transaction was invalid and insisted that the buyer had no legal right to own the property.
According to the claimants, their late father, their mother, Professor Fawehinmi and other siblings were at various times directors of Riettafa and Company Nigeria Limited. They also claimed that their mother executed a will bequeathing the properties to her five children and appointed Professor Fawehinmi as attorney over her estate.
Mrs Fawehinmi, however, denied the existence and validity of the alleged will. She told the court that she revoked all deeds of gift to her children after the properties became a source of persistent conflict and division within the family.
In her defence, she accused her first son of abandoning her in old age and pressuring her to transfer her properties to him while she was still alive. She alleged that despite sponsoring his education and establishing a hospital for him in Port Harcourt — which she claimed he later sold — he failed to care for her.
She further alleged that her children, particularly the first and second claimants whom she sponsored abroad, neither supported her financially nor cared for her welfare, but were instead consumed by disputes over her properties.
Mrs Fawehinmi also accused Professor Fawehinmi of removing her as a signatory to her company’s bank account and making himself the sole signatory, despite not being a director of the company. She said the action denied her access to her own funds.
She insisted that all the properties in dispute, including plots 178, 179 and 201 at Orominike Layout, D/Line, which she sold to Ichie Ikenna-Onu, belonged to her personally and not to Riettafa and Sons Nigeria Limited.
Mrs Fawehinmi told the court that she would only stop selling her remaining properties if her children reconcile, resolve their long-standing disputes, reunite as a family and begin to care for her as their mother.
Meanwhile, the first defendant, Ichie Ikenna-Onu, denied any wrongdoing and said he was unaware of the claims made by the siblings. He urged the court to dismiss the suit, describing it as a “gold-digging” exercise.
