It is a story that Nollywood movies are made of, only that this is a real life story. The bid by a man in Lagos, Kolawole Adesina to have his father’s will read by the Probate Registrar of Lagos State High Court is threatening to cause disintegration of a family and reveal dark secrets that could put lives and properties in danger.
Adesina, the son of an old time banker, the late Prince Emmanuel Olanipekun Adesina, who was a senior management staff with UBA during his lifetime, is currently facing the battle of his life, trying to unravel what happened to his father’s investments allegedly held by some family members. This bid nearly cost him his life as unknown assailants poured a substance suspected to be acid on him. He has also been framed with threat to life charges before a Lagos Magistrate Court, which landed him at the Kirikiri prisons for a week before he could get bail.
The senior Adesina was not a polygamist. He was married to the late Mrs. Frances Omorolaun Adesina and they had two children, Kolawole and Mrs. Adenike Oluwabunmi Adesina-Kupolati. As elites with considerable wealth, they trained their children in the Western way. Both children attended primary and secondary schools in Lagos, after which they traveled abroad. Kolawole moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in the U.S. in 1984 from where he later moved to the United Kingdom after his education. He lived abroad for almost 40 years before he decided to return home. His sister, Adenike is marries and has lived in Marlboro, Maryland, U.S. since 1981.
In the absence of their children, the senior Adesina brought in a young member of the family, his nephew, Mr. Franklin Erinle to stay with them. His wife and he took Erinle as their own son, trained him and got him a job at UBA where Adesina himself retired. In his retirement, Adesina ventured into other businesses, and investments acquiring shares in several companies.
Unfortunately, the senior Adesina, he started having age related health issues and had to rely on others, particularly Erinle for his transactions. His wife, Frances, a gold and clothes merchant was not always at home, traveling across Europe, America, and the Middle East for her business. Her son, Kolawole described her as a mother “who believes in solving every problem with money”. Adesina at a point started suspecting Erinle of some misdemeanors but was not strong enough to complain. In the course of his illness, Adesina went blind. He had a tenant in his house living at his Boys Quarters flat. Her name is Aminat Ibrahim Sherima, whom he employed as a part time care giver, who cared for him often when his wife was not around. In 2002, he took Sherima to his bank, UBA, Apapa branch, opened an account and made her signatory to it. It is from such funds that he was catered for. Adesina also did something strange, he gave Sherima a sealed letter addressed to his children and instructed her to only give them after his wife’s death.
Meanwhile, Adesina had confided in his son about his concerns over his properties. “After my father became completely blind in 1997, he confided in me that he no longer trusted Mr Erinle when he visited me in London. He expressed concerns that Mr Erinle and his wife were keeping secrets and hiding things from him”, he said.
Adesina died on February 21, 2006 at Eko Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos. The cause of death was recorded as Acute Pulmonary Oedema, and chest infection that led to pneumonia. He was 74 years old. He was buried in April 2006.
After his father’s death, Kolawole said: “I began to notice unusual occurrences within the family and the household. My father’s belongings were no longer where they should be; everything became secretive. His room, private areas, and library were now completely off limits, even to me, his only son. Whenever I inquired from Mama about my father’s possessions, the discussion would invariably escalate into drama, yielding no answers”. He let sleeping dogs lie in order not to offend his mother. This status quo remained for 15 years.
Meanwhile on January 12, 2009, the High Court of Lagos granted Letters of Administration to the Adesina family making the wife and the two children administrators. The deceased was presented as a person who died intestate. It was therefore his wife that managed the estate on behalf of her children. She also distributed the estate amongst the three of them.
The estate includes a storey building at 21, Mojidi Street, Ikeja, two duplexes at No 5, Adesina Close, Iwaya, Lagos, and a bungalow at Iperu-Ilisan Road, Iperu-Remo, Ogun State. Through a Memorandum of Agreement signed by Oluwabusayo Adebola, a lawyer from Afe Babalola law firm, the Iwaya, Lagos property was assigned to Adenike, while the Ikeja one was assigned to Kolawole, a part of which should be used by the mother for life. However, every attempt by the son to inquire about his father’s estate was rejected by the mother, often leading to quarrels.
However, something happened in January 2022, , Mrs Adesina fell ill, diagnosed with kidney malfunction and dementia. Kolawole was then in Nigeria and decided to delay his return to his London base in order to take care of her. At this time, he decided to access his father’s house for the first time in 15 years. What he discovered was shocking.
He said: “To my surprise, his wardrobes which had never been locked were now secured with three large padlocks. Upon opening them, I discovered three three boxes and three large ‘Ghana must go bags”. He also saw a note from the mother that reads “Oko Iyawo please burn as soon as possible”. Oko Iyawo here is no other than his cousin, Mr. Franklin Erinle.
Kolawole continued: “I collected the bags from the room and kept them. When I examined the bags and boxes, what I discovered sent shockwaves through my body. Inside were so many important documents primarily related to my father. I also found numerous documents indicating that my father had been impersonated and his assets sold off. I uncovered all the documents relating to my father’s properties that had been hidden from me, with hundreds of documents pertaining to large scale fraud, forgery, theft, and diversion of funds concerning my father’s shares, investments, and other properties”.
Shortly after, Mrs Frances Adesina passed away in April, 2022. She was buried on July 22, 2022, She was 85 years old. Her will was read at the Ikeja High Court on July 25, 2022. It was after the reading the mother’s will, that he found out that her father’s properties hitherto covered by Letters of Administration, issued by the same court, 15 years earlier, and that had been shared between the children and the mother, still found their way into the mother’s will and Mr. Erinle was one of the administrators of the will. The contradiction here is that Erinle was not an administrator in the father’s will but now one in the mother’s. This did not go down well with Kolawole, more so with the documents he’s discovered about the father’s belongings.
As all this was going on, Ms Sherima, the dad’s caregiver surfaced again with the letter the father kept in her care to deliver to his children after the demise of their mother. That letter was delivered to Kolawole, a day after Adenike left Nigeria after their mother’s burial. The letter was dated November 9, 2002, and on the letterhead of Advance Beverages Industries Limited, one of their father’s undisclosed companies.
The letter reads: “My dear Nike and Kola, a copy of my last will and testament is recorded and registered with my bank at UBA- 9, Wharf Road, Apapa in the event that my original will and testament which is registered at the High Court of Lagos State is damaged, destroyed, or missing”. Best regards”. It simply carries his signature.
With these revelations, Kolawole asked his lawyer, Mr Charles Ebhoma of Pich Solicitors to write to UBA concerning the information. In its reply dated May 16, 2025, and signed by Seyi Adelabu, UBA replied this:
“We are writing to inform you that, in accordance with your request and the instructions you gave Mr. Charles Ebhoman of Pich Solicitors, located at 20, Mojidi Street, Ikeja, Lagos, we have now located the last will and testament of late father, Mr. Emmanuel Olanipekun Adesina. This document was lodged in our bank for safekeeping on January 7, 2006 by Adedoyin Awosanya and Co Solicitors”.
UBA forwarded the will to Ebhoman on May 16, 2025.
Another snag appeared at this juncture again. The chambers of Adedoyin Awosanya which UBA claimed deposited the will in its custody two years earlier was the same family lawyer who in 2008 facilitated the Letters of Administration for the late Adesina. In a letter dated April 23, 2008, and signed by Abiola Adetola, the firm informed Mrs Adesina that the valuation report on the estates of Adesina was out. She requested Mrs Frances Adesina to make out a bank draft in favor of the Probate Registrar, Lagos State the sum of N487, 222:00 as total assessment fees to be paid to Lagos State Government while she also charged administrative and professional fees to the tune of N275,000:00. Awosanya now late was a childhood friend of Adesina, according to family investigation. His daughter, Abiola Adetola also a lawyer now runs the firm. Therefore if Awosanya was aware of Adesina’s will, why help apply for the Letters of Administration?
Since the time he started trying to unravel the truth about his father’s estate, particularly after the demise of the mother, Kolawole said his life has been in danger. On February 2, 2023, some unknown persons on a motorbike poured acid on him at Iperu-Remo on his way back to Lagos after attending a peace meeting with Mr Erinle.
He had been arrested and detained at both Ikeja Police Station and Zone 2, Onikan only to be released by the police after investigations concerning to criminal allegations against him. On January 29, 2025, he was arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate Court, Ogba before Mrs. Antoinette Dirisu on a three count charge on threat to life, malicious damage, and conduct likely to cause breach of peace. He was alleged to have threatened the life of her sister, Adenike who at the material time was in her home in Maryland, US. He was granted bail pending trial after spending seven days at the Kirikiri Correctional Center before his bail could be perfected. On June 2, 2025, Magistrate Dirisu threw out the charges for want of diligent prosecution. The Magistrate noticed that while the defendant had always attended court proceedings, while the complainant has not attended after arraignment. She stated that the complainant cannot hold the court to ransom.
She said: “It is the avowed duty of the prosecutor to diligently prove whatever charges brought against a defendant and not the other way round. This defendant was always present himself for the prosecutor to prosecute the charges against him. Justice is a three way traffic. Justice to the Prosecution, Justice to the Defendant and Justice to the society. It will not be in the interest of justice for the defendant to keep coming to court for a matter the prosecutor is not ready for. For this and other reasons, the three count charges against the defendant are struck out for want of diligent prosecution and the defendant discharged”.
Meanwhile, every attempt to read the will by the Probate Registrar has been stalled. In a letter signed by Emmanuel Abioye on behalf of the Probate Registrar, the court had invited Adenike to witness the reading of the will scheduled for October 17, 2025. Her lawyer, Olanrewaju Jaiyeoba of Afe Babalola Chambers, the same law firm that signed the documents concerning the sharing of the estate had vehemently objected to the reading of the will. In separate petitions to the Chief Judge of Lagos State, the firm opposed the reading claiming that it is “highly suspicious, questionable, and presently the subject of an active police investigation”.
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