Wofai Ewa, Engineer and Cross River State deputy governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the 2019 general elections, is in court, locked in a battle with his uncles; yes, his father’s paternal, biological brothers over a property he insist is his father’s When www.calitown.com cornered him, he let it all out and maintains that his family’s situation should be an eye opener to a lot of people. Excerpts:
You are locked in a legal tussle with your uncles over your late father’s house. What are the issues?
It is quite unfortunate that anyone would hear or even imagine that my father’s younger siblings are making such an inglorious attempt at rewriting history and denying the rights of the children of their eldest brother, pacesetter, benefactor, and ultimately their breadwinner. Our father, Elder Okoi Ikpi Ewa, would be turning in his grave to see what his siblings have become. For the benefit of the doubt, my father’s siblings in question are Mrs. Sarah Patrick Iyamba; Dr. Ewa Ikpi Ewa (popularly known as Okundu Kepom); Mr. Egu Ikpi Ewa (former CLO to Hon. Alex Egbona, popularly known as Fada, and the father of my popular cousin and comedienne, Wofai Fada); Elder Omini Ikpi Ewa (Elder of the Redeemed Church of Christ, in-law to former Chief of Naval Staff Ibas, and distinguished politician); Mr. Patrick Ikpi Ewa (retired Director of the CRS Civil Service); and Mr. Ikpi Ikpi Ewa (two-time Special Adviser to former Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade).
I think to understand the issues clearly, there is a need for some historical context. Please bear with me.
Our father and his siblings were born into a family of five wives and many children. Our father was the first child and grew to become the breadwinner; accommodating, feeding, educating, and basically raising every other sibling. Our father’s love and loyalty to his siblings and the entire extended family often saw us happily endure great discomfort, like delayed payments of our school fees or purchase of necessities, just so his siblings and their families could be well. Even during moments where some of his siblings would go on to lose their jobs, our father would either do whatever was necessary to help them get reinstated, or basically took the burden of care for his siblings and their families.
In the early 80s, our father and his peers at the time decided to acquire personal lands in order to commence the building of their personal homes in Ugep. Our father – then in the company of now-senior citizens like Chief Dr. Otu Abam Ubi (former Commissioner of the CRS Civil Service Commission and former Rector of the School of Basic Studies), Mr. Patrick Iwara (former Director of the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office) amongst others – sought land allocation from the Egbizium Community in Ugep, Yakurr LGA. Since our father was clearly the breadwinner of the entire family, my grand-father, a retired police officer and farmer, transferred ownership of a portion of his land to his first son, to build his personal country home. This land transaction and transfer of ownership was well documented at the Egbizum Community, and as such, all land development documentation, including registered property development documents in our possession and government filings, contain just the name Okoi Ikpi Ewa, reflecting the absolute and sole ownership of the property by our father. Further proof of ownership, is reflected in the fact that our grandfather kept these documents in his possession during the entire construction process, as my father used him to manage the ongoing construction work and sent him the funds meant for the payment of construction personnel and for materials. Let me emphasise that my grandfather was well read, and was in possession of all land development documentation bearing only his son’s name, and yet there was never a question or doubt about the only name on the property development documents or property ownership, throughout his lifetime.
Upon the completion of the property, our father freely accommodated his siblings, while collecting rent from other flats within the property. In 2002, our father realised that one of his siblings, Dr. Ewa Ikpi Ewa (Okundu kepom), had not built any houses of his own and struggled to find a place to stay whenever he visited Nigeria. With that in mind, our father freely but temporarily offered Okundu a flat, where he resided whenever he visited Nigeria. A renowned medical practitioner in Cross River State, Dan Abubakar previously occupied this particular flat and had a tenancy agreement with my father, before moving to his private home. Not long after that, we heard a rumour alluding that the property was jointly built and owned by our father and Okundu.
Immediately, my siblings and I convened a meeting with our parents, where the question was put to my father, if the rumours were true. I still recall my father jokingly asking me to imagine how he would have attained numerous top career positions and not be able to build his own country home, without the help of siblings who were still depending and living off him. In that meeting, he shared the vision which guided his choice of design for the property, and then told us he was going to find out the truth about who was peddling such rumours.
For clarity, our father has been Sole Administrator and Chairman of the Old Calabar Municipality in the military era, an excellent career civil servant, then became Project Manager of the famed UNICEF-funded RUWATSAN projects in Cross River State, and eventually retired as a distinguished Permanent Secretary in the Cross River State civil service.
Not long after that nuclear family meeting, our father convened an enlarged meeting in Ugep, where other family matters were addressed, as was the norm during his leadership of the family. To the hearing of all present, including members of the enlarged family, the Obol Kepon of Egbizium (head of the paternal family) and other chiefs, our father asked Okundu about the rumours. Okundu literally went on his knees, swearing to the heavens and promising that he had never made such statements to anyone, and went ahead to clarify that he had never considered himself a part owner of the property. Our father even asked him a simple question thus; “so even if you had sent a few dollars to support your benefactor, breadwinner and elder brother, would that have translated to shared ownership?” Okundu loudly rejected the idea, apologised and promised to end the rumours. Some months later, in another family meeting, our father pointed him to another piece of land within the enlarged family compound, and ordered Okundu to demolish the old building there and build his personal house, having lived in the USA for almost four decades without a single building of his own in Nigeria. Our father went on to ask him to return the keys to the flat temporarily offered to him, once his personal house was completed. All these meetings were documented and the minutes are in the possession of my uncles, and I hope that they will be kind enough to present them in court.
Years later, our father passed on and we did not even bother to quickly implement his instructions, because we trusted that our uncles would live by the morals and good examples by which our father raised them and us, so we were relaxed about the property being occupied by our uncles. However, sometime in 2023, my siblings and I visited Ugep and realised that the property was becoming decrepit, for reasons of abandonment and neglect, even by those who freely lived there. In order to now implement our late father’s wishes, we called our uncle Okundu in the USA, and told him that after having completed his personal house several years ago, he needed to relinquish the keys as promised our father. We informed him that we needed to take over the flat he was temporarily offered, so we could commence beneficial occupation and possibly use proceeds of the rent to institute a facility management fund, which will be used to implement routine and emergent repair and renovation works on the property. Without delay, he agreed and asked us to meet his younger sibling Mr. Egu Ikpi Ewa aka Fada, who had been instructed to hand over the keys to us. At this point, Okundu had long completed his personal house years ago and had already moved in, leaving our father’s flat unoccupied. Okundu even went ahead to ask my elder brother to take the old furniture still left in the flat, if he wanted to. So we approached Fada with this information, and he asked us to give him one month so he could make the necessary arrangements.
We called Fada after almost six months, and that is where all the drama began. Fada, fresh from agreeing to hand over the keys, suddenly sent a message to my elder brother, asking “who brainwashed you kids to thinking that the property belonged to only your father?” My elder brother, shocked and confused, forwarded the message to Okundu in the USA, and then called Okundu to hear from him and clarify why Fada would bring up this dead rumour. Rather than take our calls to offer clarity, Okundu ignored all our calls but sent an SMS to Fada, commending him for his stand, and then adding “how can we allow those kids alone take such a big property”. The moment Fada forwarded Okundu’s message to us, we knew Fada had successfully instigated and twisted Okundu’s mind, bringing back the dead old rumour of shared ownership of our father’s property, but due to Okundu’s continued rejection of our calls and messages, we had to wait for his next visit to Nigeria, to seek clarity on his position.
Therefore, in December 2023, Okundu arrived Ugep and we went to have a meeting with him. However, Okundu remained indoors and kept avoiding having a meeting with us, until we had no choice but to table the matter with the patrilineal family head, who invited our father’s siblings and especially Okundu, but only Egu Ikpi Ewa (Fada) and Patrick Ikpi Ewa arrived for the meeting, while the others stayed away. As we insisted that Okundu was the primary person to respond to the issues, the patrilineal head put a call across to him and Okundu vehemently turned down the request to meet us, all personal appeals from the patrilineal head to him to honour the invitation and show respect to traditional authority, were turned down. Rather, we heard him on the phone saying “I will not come”, and that was how that meeting ended without a resolution. Although Fada made a shameful attempt and told a huge lie to the chiefs, that Okundu was the one who built the foundations of our father’s house, to which the chiefs present had a very loud laugh. Fada immediately realised his lies had been found out, because the chiefs present also know the true history of our father’s property.
Due to Okundu’s refusal to honour the invitation of the patrilineal head, we went back home and the next morning, at about 6 O’clock in the morning Mr. Patrick Ikpi Ewa visited my brother and me at home. With his teary eyes, he told us that Okundu had called him earlier and invited him to his personal house. Patrick told us that Okundu was in tears that morning, saying, “he never imagined that he would ever be in a struggle with his late elder brother’s children over their property, and that he should never have listened to Fada (Egu Ikpi Ewa)”, confirming that the mastermind of this issue was and still remains Egu Ikpi Ewa (Fada). Therefore, Okundu asked Patrick to come apologise to us on his behalf, and plead with us to remove the matter from the patrilineal head’s table, and that he would have a meeting with us that evening, to inform us when he would relinquish the keys. With this great news, I left Ugep immediately and allowed my elder brother stay back to have the meeting and confirm when the keys would be received. Sadly, my brother later called me that evening, telling me something really funny. He said that as they gathered for the meeting in Okundu’s private living room downstairs, Okundu himself remained upstairs and decided against coming downstairs where about ten persons were waiting for him to kick-start the meeting he convened. As my brother insisted that no meetings can hold without Okundu coming downstairs, Mr. Patrick Ikpi Ewa then had to assume the role of messenger, taking word from my brother downstairs to Okundu upstairs, and this he did back and forth. The summary of that meeting was that Okundu asked my brother to “simply agree that he was a part owner of the property, before Okundu would release the keys to him”. On hearing this, my brother called me and we both agreed to reject his proposal, and that meeting ended without a resolution.
Seeing all the attempts by Ewa Ikpi Ewa (Okundu), Egu Ikpi Ewa (Fada), Omini Ikpi Ewa, Patrick Ikpi Ewa and Ikpi Ikpi Ewa to either delay or frustrate our efforts to take beneficial possession of the property, we wrote to the Obol Lopon of Ugep and Paramount Ruler of Yakurr whom I had personally informed of the issue. Our letter was copied to the Assiatant Commissioner of Police, ACP, Ugep Police Command, the patrilineal head, and the Presidents of both the Egbizium and Ikpakapit Youth Associations, for record and possible mediation purposes. We informed the Obol Lopon of Ugep that having failed in alternative dispute resolution at both the family level and the traditional authority we had no choice but to seek external support to resolve the matter. We even mentioned that we would head to court if we had to, even though we were never happy to put this all out in the public, through litigation. So we went ahead to ask our lawyer to issue a quit notice to Okundu, via an aunt (Ms. Isu Ikpi Ewa) who now lives in Okundu’s personal house, but still keeps the keys to our father’s unoccupied flat temporarily offered to Okundu.
Immediately after our letter reached the palace, Okundu commissioned the services of Justina Obono-Obla of Obono, Obono & Associates. They wrote to the Obol Lopon of Ugep asking him to disregard our letter and stay clear of the matter. They even went ahead to start building up a trail of lies and false historical narratives, a lot of which we have already dispelled, with facts and legal documentation.
In October 2024, Fada (Mr. Egu Ikpi Ewa) invited me and my brother to a meeting with ThankGod Ofem, the President of the Ikpakapit Youth Association. In that meeting, Fada pleaded with us to wait for Okundu’s arrival in December 2024, and promised us that he would convince Okundu to let go of the property, because after completing his personal house, Okundu really did not need to keep holding on to our father’s old-fashioned flat. We left that meeting with some relief that the very man, Egu Ikpi Ewa, who instigated this family-dividing and peace-threatening issue, caused Okundu to disregard his earlier promise to our father, had finally come to terms with truth and reality. In December 2024, we arrived Ugep for our meeting with Okundu but he never showed up as promised. Instead, Egu Ikpi Ewa and Omini Ikpi Ewa hosted me, my brother and the Ikpakapit Youth President to a meeting, where they reiterated that once Okundu arrives Ugep/Nigeria, they would convince him to relinquish the keys to our father’s flat. Lo and behold, as we left Ugep for Calabar, our uncles decided to begin legal proceedings against us, seeking an order of perpetual injunction against us, heirs, to our own father’s property. In their various claims made to the Ugep Divisional Police and the High Court in Ugep, they have continued on the inglorious path of telling the same tired lies, and doing so even on oath, with a total disregard for the sanctity of the court and even completely ignoring the possibility of committing criminal perjury. So while we were waiting for Okundu to arrive, we received court summons, and our meeting in court will be on Wednesday the 19th of March, 2025.
What is quite hurtful is that these are the same siblings that our father raised, bled for, and went to the grave still caring for their needs. I recall some instances that I’d like to share, if you’d permit me;
I recall at various times when some of my father’s siblings were dismissed from the Cross River State Civil Service, but he had them reinstated, and today they are retired directors, earning a pension and living well with their families. Some even own properties generating revenue for them.
I recall a time when one of them sold my father’s plot of land in Calabar without my father’s knowledge or consent. When my father later asked him, he could only cry and apologise. This particular uncle leached on my father so much that my father would give him huge amounts of money for businesses that always failed, or for funding his numerous political voyages. This same uncle now falsely claims to have offered me US$30,000.00 to further my education in the UK, a blatant lie with absolutely no logical basis, when I have always been a serial scholarship winner from my first degree to my doctorate degree.
I recall the numerous times our father would take absolute care of his siblings’ children out of wedlock, placing them on scholarships until graduation while managing their welfare. These innocent cousins of mine were either rejected by these uncles or they hardly had the means to take care of them without my father’s intervention.
I recall several times I personally had to offer scholarships to my cousins to see them through the university, and even help some secure employment with corporate organisations that I worked and consulted for, when their fathers failed to pay for their education, help them get jobs after graduation or even care for them.
I recall how our mum won the famed Udoji award and most of the 2000 pounds awarded to her was sent to an uncle in the US while he was still studying, just to support him and avoid possibly dropping out of school and facing a deportation back to Nigeria. My mother had a business proposal to establish mills for the production or rice, palm and cassava in Central Cross River State, in the 70s, but she later told us of how that dream died because my father’s kid brother in the USA needed to be helped and supported.
I recall growing up to see how they lived in our home, ate my mother’s food, and drove my father’s cars at will, while we only watched and endured, smiling all the way to maturity.
Now this is funny, but I also recall one of them taking me to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, 25 years ago as a first year student, and abandoning me there after a day to run back to Calabar with all the money given to him by my father to sort me out in school. Thankfully, I had the NITEL N400 call card, for those old enough to remember (laughs), and was able to reach my father, who bailed me out with money for all the things I needed to do and pay for.
I feel a bit teary recalling all these things, and it is still tough imagining that these men, whom my father supported from childhood to grandfather-hood, and continued supporting until the very day he passed on, would have the heart to turn around and try to balkanise his property for themselves, while his children watch on. It is also hard to imagine that some of them have already built their own personal houses and taking rent as well, yet still trying to grab what does not belong to them.
They want me and my siblings to believe that while our father was building his one and only country home in the 80s, when most of them were still in school studying under his tutelage, that they all contributed to building the house, and so our father’s property must be shared amongst his siblings?
They have threatened our lives and recently instigated thugs to attack me and my family at my home in Calabar. Matter-of-factly, Mr. Egu Ikpi Ewa (Fada) even recently told a few persons that I should have been killed by now, but for his mercy, all because we are asking them to do what is right?
These are the issues.
Is it impossible, to once again come to the family table and reach a truce that doesn’t sever family ties?
As you may have now learnt from the story, the family table is lacking in the will to find a resolution, because the family table is now occupied by a self-serving leader, with little or no leadership skills, something exceptionally different from the way my father led from the front. I mean, how do you make sense of the fact that an uncle has failed to facilitate the relocation of a single human being from Nigeria to the USA, where he has lived for almost 50 years? Same uncle who returns every year talking big about his affiliations with the likes of President Barack Obama, Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Edwin Clark, etc., but, still yet to uplift a single soul in the whole family. Even his first son in Nigeria lived under our roof and under the care of my parents, and eventually passed on with little or no support from his own father. So the family table is highly compromised and has not been able to find a solution to the issue. See, these few siblings claiming my father’s property are very much in the minority and not supported by the majority of the extended family, yet they keep falsely claiming to be representing the entire family. These few uncles are currently very unpopular within the family, due to their shocking actions. It is so sad that even their wives and children are highly ashamed of their actions.
So I would imagine that at this moment in time, it would truly be impossible to expect a solution from the family table.
If the court verdict is not in your favour, will you and your siblings accept the judgement and let go of the property?
I think rather that the question should be “if the court verdict is in our favour, will they accept the judgement?” I still believe in the Nigerian Judiciary and I believe that we have a very good case, with all legal documents confirming only one thing, that Okoi Ikpi Ewa owns the property in dispute. So we are absolutely sure of securing victory in court, and our lawyer will do a great job defending our rights to inherit our father’s one and only country home. However, it is on record that Ewa Ikpi Ewa has vowed over his dead body will he relinquish the property.
Therefore, if in the event the unthinkable happens and they somehow secure victory, which is very unlikely, we might consider honouring the verdict of the court and moving on with our lives. Our greatest desire is not to live or raise our families in that particular property, but to restore its structural and cosmetic integrity, befitting of its owner when he was alive, and how he would have wanted his property maintained, today. Of course we will surely build more properties for ourselves and several other family members, but our father’s only property in his home, will be reclaimed and well maintained, even if just as a monument in remembrance of our father.
We are eagerly anticipating Wednesday the 19th of March, as defendants in the case to reclaim our late father’s property and legacy.
*The other parties to this dispute were not available for comments and do have a right of reply should they be open to stating their side of the story.*
