The controversy surrounding the will of the late Access Bank Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Wigwe, has intensified, with his family questioning the legitimacy and jurisdiction of the document filed in Nigeria.
Joyce Wigwe, the elder sister of the late billionaire, has raised multiple red flags regarding the handling of the will, which was initially lodged in Florida, United States.
In an interview with TV360 Exclusive, Joyce revealed, “We were told in September that there was a will to be read. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Wigwe’s close business partner, came and told my father in August.”
She expressed concerns over the timing and secrecy surrounding the will’s reading. According to Joyce, her father, a 90-year-old man, was sent abroad for medical checks, coinciding with the scheduled reading of the will.
Joyce alleged that no family members were informed about the will’s contents beforehand. “My father was in a state of frenzy because he had not been told about the will,” she said.
The family’s suspicions grew upon receiving a copy of the will, discovering that the document filed in Nigeria was only three pages long, while the version in Florida spanned 18 pages. “Why wasn’t the full document filed in Nigeria? That was a problem,” Joyce questioned.
A key issue was the mention of a trust asset in the full document. “The full document showed that the will spoke to a trust asset, and that trust asset was one property in Florida,” she explained.
However, the will made no reference to Herbert Wigwe’s assets in Nigeria or other regions, raising doubts about its applicability beyond the United States.
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Joyce further revealed that the Florida court documents listed Betty Blanco as the personal representative of the estate. “Betty Blanco was paid off in millions of dollars. We don’t even know if Betty was paid off from Herbert’s estate,” she said, demanding clarification on the source of the payment.
In the Nigerian version of the will, Betty’s name was reportedly removed, with Uche Wigwe named as the sole trustee instead.
Efforts by the family to seek explanations were allegedly met with resistance. “We called him, our lawyer called him. Let’s have a conversation about this. He said he wasn’t going to honour us with a conversation,” Joyce stated. Consequently, the family filed a caveat in court to halt the execution of the will pending legal review.
Joyce also raised concerns about future tax implications for Herbert Wigwe’s children. “If they bring that whole document here, Herbert’s children are going to have to sue when they come of age because of the huge amount of taxes it will attract,” she warned.
The Wigwe family is now demanding a full legal review of the will, questioning why only selected portions were filed in Nigeria, excluding crucial details from the original document in Florida.
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