Chief Mrs. Bola Kuforiji-Olubi |
There is a powerful Yoruba mantra
that says “May our old age be more auspicious than our beginnings”. This
aphorism would definitely apply to the mess that our revered Chief of Ijebu and
Egba descent, Chief Mrs. Bola Kuforiji-Olubi, has now enmeshed herself in. This
Amazon is, without doubt, the most successful and accomplished
woman that Nigeria has ever produced. She is a chief of Ijebuland and Egba Kingdom.
She was President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN),
Chairman of the second largest bank in Nigeria, the United Bank for Africa (UBA
Plc), Chairman of British Engineering Company, BEWAC, Chairman of French building
materials supply conglomerate, EQUIP, Nigeria’s federal Minister of Commerce
and Industry and many other accolades. She is very well blessed and successful
in her travails through life.
As life is not always a bed of roses, she had separated from the father of
her children who is late, but she
kept the Kuforiji name in the interest of her children and as, indeed, she is
legally entitled to so do. She later met dashing and youthful-looking Chief
Daniel Adeyanju Olubi who was an administrative manager in one of the companies
she held sway in, married him and, in her
most popular and successful days, became known as Chief Mrs. Bola Kuforiji-Olubi.
Her husband, Yanju, a good friend of late Chairman of the Yoruba Tennis Club
and leading architect of his time, Kingsonian, Arc. John Seyton Macgregor (AKA
JSK) of the iconic and dynastic Lagos Macgregor family who took immensely to
him and enhanced Olubi’s initiation into the Yoruba Tennis Club.
Mrs Bola
Kuforiji-Olubi later separated from Chief Olubi and has been living a happy
retired life caring for her children, Tokunbo and Joke and their children in her
massive riverside mansion on Marine Road Apapa while surrendering the management
of her real estate holdings to her children and taking occasional vacations and
health check travels to her London millionaires row residence on Philimore Gardens, Willesden near the
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) houses, the Asemotas dwelling on Manor House Drive,
the Mike Adenuga, the Dangote and Fola Ogunlesi residences on Willesden Lane,
NW London.
It has therefore come not only as
a surprise but also as a thundering shock to hear that this lady of such high
integrity is now languishing in the notorious Holloway women’s prison in London,
England. This social media site was absolutely incredulous and gob smacked to learn
that this dignified woman would in her approach to octogenarianism be now irked
in such a maelstrom of depravity.
In a nutshell: She was involved in a business
venture with three international companies in Nigeria. A business disagreement
occurred between her, the two oil and gas companies and another international
oil company (IOC). The original business agreement provided for arbitration on
any disagreement to be settled in City of London, under English law, especially
as Mrs Olubi, the Chairman of the company and her son, Olutokunbo Afolabi
Kuforiji, a Director of the company, are British citizens. The matter was taken
before an English judge who ruled that a sum of USD19m in dispute should be
paid by the IOC to the British company and a letter directing the IOC to so do
be effected by Mrs. Olubi’s company.
Mrs. Olubi reverted to a Nigerian
court, which failed to give a ruling on the matter (typical of procrastination
and prevarication by Nigerian courts) even though the IOC offered to pay the amount
in dispute to the court pending final judgment.
English court disagreed with
intervention by Nigerian court as the agreement provided for arbitration in
London and ordered Mrs. Olubi to direct the writing of the English court
ordered directive.
Mrs. Olubi resorted to another
Nigerian court and attempted to obtain another ruling. The English court
ordered Mrs. Olubi to appear in court and comply with its ruling or face
contempt of court.
Mrs. Olubi appeared in court and
attempted to recuse herself from proceedings averring that she had resigned as
Chairman of the defendant company as she had handed over the baton to her son,
Tokunbo. The Judge, Justice Burton of the Commercial Division of the High Court
of Justice Queens Branch Division, again admonished her and gave her a final
warning that he was cognizant and considerate of her stature and age and thus
gave her a last chance for her and her son to comply with the court ruling and
purge herself of the seeming contempt.
Mrs. Olubi subsequently departed
the shores of the UK and could not be found in her London residence.
Quite a few months later, when
the Judge learnt of her presence in London, he issued a warrant for her arrest.
Mrs. Olubi refused to attend
court stressing that she was very ill, on a wheelchair and only able to leave
her house for medical appointments. The applicant in the case utilised the ploy
usually associated with tracking of social security cheats who pretend to be
disabled and are photographed the next day playing football. They set up a team
to monitor Mrs Olubi’s movement and photographed her a few days later shopping
gaily on London most famous Oxford Street.
When this photographic evidence
was produced as evidence to the English Judge, he ordered the immediate arrest
of the Madam. The Judge consequently sent her to the infamous Holloway Women
Prison in North London where she is serving a one-month sentence for contempt
of court.
Holloway Prison is reputed to be
mostly occupied by Nigerian women fraud convicts (many called Alhaja Holloway)
and the prison is irreputable for vice, vile, prostitution, molestation and Lesbianism.
The Judge also convicted and
sentenced Mrs. Bola Kuforiji-Olubi’s son, Mr Olutokunbo Kuforiji, to four
months imprisonment, albeit in absentia. He is likely to join ex-Governor James
Ibori in SW London Brixton Prison where porridge is the most common and savoury
item on the menu.
Tokunbo Kuforiji is on the run
and has been declared wanted while his mother, Chief Mrs. Bola
Kuforiji-Olubi languishes in the
roach-infested Holloway Women Prison at the pleasure of Her
Majesty, the Queen of England.
What is unknown is whether
failure to comply with the court ruling may warrant a continuous sentencing and
whether the amount of £300, 000 costs awarded against her may lead to the sale
by auction of her London property.
How the mighty are falling! How
can this happen to such an eminent personality? In the UK, the law is no
respecter of persons but we think the Nigerian High Commission, on behalf of
the government of Nigeria, should have taken diplomatic steps to sort out this
matter. We hasten to add that it is strongly believed that Mrs. Olubi had utilized
the Nigerian Immigration Services to deport the complainant in the matter from
Nigeria although an equally reputable and powerful Nigerian oil and gas
conglomerate is standing firmly behind that foreign company and that the expatriate
deportees are back in the country transacting business in the oil and gas
industry.
-ThisDayLive.Com .
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