Business
Death do us part! Herbert Wigwe’s family fight over his multi-billion dollar estate
One year after the death of investment banker and former Managing Director of Access Bank of Nigeria Plc., the late Herbert Wigwe, in a helicopter crash in the U.S., his families are at war over the control of the multi-billion dollar estate he left behind.
Several reports suggested that Herbert Wigwe died without leaving behind a will, leading to an all-out battle for the control of his vast empire.
On one side of the family divide is Wigwe’s extended family led by his aged father, Pastor Shygnle Wigwe, and on the other side is his immediate family, and the bank. While Wigwe’s extended family wants control of the vast estate of the late billionaire by appointing its administrator, arguing that his children are too young to handle it, his immediate family, especially his first daughter and her backers will have nothing of that.
Unable to amicably resolve their differences, the feuding camps have approached the courts to stall each other from having the edge, thus igniting legal fireworks that could drag on for years.
Contrary to the general belief that Herbert did not leave a will behind, because the matter went before a probate court, BH reliably gathered that the deceased was deposed to his last testaments at the Probate Division of the Ikeja High Court.
While an estate administrator is a person appointed by a probate court to manage the estate of a deceased person, who did not leave a will, probate courts also get involved when there is a dispute in a will.
The former Access Bank CEO, his wife, Doreen Chizoba, and son Chizi, it would be recalled, died in a helicopter crash in the Mojave Desert along the California-Nevada border in the United States on Friday, February 11, 2024, along with the former group chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) Plc, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, and two crew members.
The ill-fated helicopter, an Airbus Helicopters EC-130, had departed about 8.45 pm Friday, February 11, 2024, from Palm Springs airport in California en route to Boulder City, Nevada, about 26 miles (41km) south-east of Las Vegas. It, however, crashed before reaching its destination.
The remains of former Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Dr. Herbert Wigwe; his wife, Doreen Chizoba and first son, Chizzy, arrived in Nigeria on the weekend of March 8, and were buried in a private tomb inside the Wigwe University, which he built in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State on March 9, 2024, after a funeral service at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Isiokpo, Rivers State.
However, hardly had the dust that greeted the tragic death of the banker and his family settled and rumours of a split between family members over who manages Wigwe’s estate emerged.
In one of the reports published in October 2024, an online publication had written that Herbert’s parents filled a caveat at the Probate Registry of the Ikeja High Court, Lagos, seeking to challenge the distribution of his estate as outlined in his will.
According to the report, the affidavit for the relief was filed by Herbert’s father, Pastor Shyngle, and Christian Chukwuka Wigwe, the late banker’s cousin.
The two prayed the court to alter the directives set down by the deceased regarding the administration of his estate.
Some of the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs, the report stated, included the request by Pastor Shyngle Wigwe (Herbert’s father) that 20 percent of Herbert’s estate be allotted to him and other family members.
The request, the report stated, is contrary to Herbert’s will, which mandates that his wealth be distributed solely among his children.
However, the report was outrightly debunked by the Senior Wigwe, who described it as fabricated.
In a statement signed by one Emeka Wigwe for the family on Tuesday, October 11, 2024, Pastor Shyngle denied the claims made by the online publication, insisting that at no point had he requested 20 percent of the estate of his late son.
“We, the family of Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, wish to address a recent article titled ‘Family Dispute Erupts Over Estate of Late Banking Executive Herbert Wigwe’ published on October 13, 2024.
“This article has unfortunately spread widely across social and national media. While we recognize the role of the press in sharing news, such reports must be based on truth and accuracy.
“To clarify, at no point has Pastor Shyngle Wigwe requested 20 percent of the estate of the late Herbert Wigwe. Neither has there been any such request by other family members.
“The article’s claim that this demand contradicts Herbert’s will is entirely false and misleading. The facts regarding the estate are already publicly available in the Probate Registry, where an affidavit clearly outlines the correct details. A simple search by your reporters would have revealed this truth”, the statement noted.
However, despite valiant efforts by concerned parties to hide the dispute emanating from the scramble for Herbert’s wealth, the nation’s media space was last week awash with reports of a court proceeding in a case between the warring parties at the Ikeja High Court, Lagos. The development thus confirmed initial rumours that all was not well in the late banker’s expanded family.
In court papers seen by BH at the weekend, 90-year-old Shyngle Wigwe and Chukwuka Wigwe had approached the Ikeja High Court, Lagos, asking that an administrator be appointed to head Herbert Wigwe’s estate.
Listed as defendants in the case are Herbert Wigwe’s 26-year-old daughter, Miss Otutochi Channel, brother, Uche, and the deceased’s business partner and close confidant, Aigboje AIG Imoukhiede, as administrators and guardians of his two underage children.
A source close to the family informed BH that Herbert internationally picked the three because he believed they could protect his legacies.
“Late Herbert had picked five people, his late wife, Chizoba; late son, Tochi; his first daughter, Chizi; his junior brother, Uche, and partner, Aigboje AIG Imoukhiede, to manage his estate in the event of his untimely demise until his other children attain adulthood.
“He rightly judged his extended family well by not choosing them as administrators of his will. As if he had foreseen what would happen after his death.
“Thankfully, he left behind a grown daughter, who is more than capable. Chizi would have become the sole executor of the estate if not for her minor siblings. The other appointed guardians were listed in the will to help out, as Herbert believed that the weight of managing the home front and businesses all alone without strong backbones like Uche and AIG Imoukhiede would have been too heavy for Chizi.
“That’s why he put the two men in the will to assist his wife and children if he didn’t live long. Unfortunately, Chizobia and Tochi who were supposed to administer his estate with trusted acquaintances died along with him in the crash, leaving only Chizi behind”, a source close to the Wigwe family disclosed.
Meanwhile, Herbert’s decision to protect his immediate family by leaving out distant family, our correspondent learned, did not go well with his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The aggrieved family members, sources claimed, were particularly angered by Herbert’s decision not to accommodate them in the will.
“He (Herbert) believed he had done enough for them. Apart from the investments and endowments he had set up for his parents, siblings, and extended families, he also built houses for them in Rivers, Lagos, and Abuja. These are the ones that I know. So, what else do the family want”, another source stated.
Despite all the legal odds stacked against them, the enlarged Wigwe family is not ready to go down without a fight.
Some of their demands include the appointment of Pastor Shyngle Wigwe as an interim administrator of his late son’s estate.
Also, the application sought the appointment of Tochi Wigwe (Herbert’s daughter), Uche (Herbert’s brother), and two firms — Zee’s Trust Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited— as interim estate managers.
In addition to these demands, the Senior Wigwe demanded joint guardianship of Herbert’s minor children, which would have given him oversight of their welfare.
However, in his ruling delivered on February 6, 2025, Justice A.O. Adeyemi of the Lagos State High Court, Family/Probate Division, Ikeja, ruled against Pastor Shyngle Wigwe’s request to be appointed as an interim administrator of his late son’s estate, saying the reliefs sought were not justified.
The judge also ruled that the claims made in Pastor Wigwe’s application were largely identical to those in an ongoing substantive suit.
He also referred to an existing judgment that had already appointed Otutochi Wigwe as the legal guardian of the deceased’s minor children.
BH gathered from lawyers present during proceedings that the claimants, fearing a public backlash, had requested that the matter be heard in chambers, citing the involvement of minor children and the need for discretion under section 128 of the Child Rights Law, 2007.
Probably believing that hearing the matter in the open would help their case in the court of public opinion, the defendants, represented by Paul Usoro (SAN) objected to this prayer. The objection was sustained by the judge, who ruled that the matter be heard in public.
The ruling’s subsequent widespread publication drew public concern, with many Nigerians castigating the Senior Wigwe and his family for trying to inappropriately take over his grandchildren’s inheritance.
While the judgment came as a relief for Wigwe’s children and the appointed executors of his estate, the plaintiffs had gone on appeal.
Our correspondent reliably gathered from sources at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, that the plaintiffs, led by Wigwe’s father, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, had appealed the judgment at the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division.
“A notice of appeal was filed on February 13, 2025, to challenge the High Court ruling”, the source stated.
In the notice of appeal sighted by our correspondent, the appellants argued that the High Court failed to differentiate between interim reliefs—meant to preserve the estate and ensure the well-being of dependents—and final reliefs that would ultimately determine the distribution of assets.
In their evidence, they cited Section 24 of the Administration of Estate Law of Lagos State, 2015, which empowers courts to appoint interim administrators when necessary.
They challenged the court’s reliance on a prior ex parte guardianship order, contending that it excluded the children’s grandparents without prior notice. The appellants also maintained that the request merely sought to include them as co-guardians rather than overturn the existing order.
They also appealed the denial of a Norwich Pharmacal order, which would have compelled financial institutions, including Access Bank, to disclose Herbert Wigwe’s financial holdings.
They argued that, with probate pending, certain assets remain unaccounted for and under the control of the defendants without full transparency.
With the matter now before the Court of Appeal and substantive cases still pending at different lower courts, legal experts believe that the matter will be drawn out, possibly ending at the Supreme Court.l, and it could take years before the matter is finally resolved.
Meanwhile, the bad blood generated by the attempt by the late Herbert Wigwe’s extended family to take over his vast estate has continued to linger. In a viral video seen by BH at the weekend, one Emeka Wigwe, said to be the late Herbert’s uncle, tried to stop the late banker’s children from visiting and praying at his graveside in his hometown, Isiokpo ahead of the first anniversary of his death.
In the video, Emeka Wigwe is seen struggling with operatives of the Department of the States Services (DSS) in his bid to prevent the vehicle that conveyed Herbert’s children from exiting their father’s graveyard.
