Oskar Ibru
Scion of the Ibru dynasty, Olorogun Oskar Ibru, shocked a lot of his friends and relatives when he decided against any celebrations for his 59th birthday. It was unlike him not to throw down as he had always done. Instead, he settled for a very low-key celebration of the day with his family and few family friends. Not for him this year was the rivers of champagnes and cognacs under loud, heart-thumping music.
Olorogun is not broke but he seems broken by the crises that have engulfed the Ibru family. Sources say he might have been tempered on one hand by the loss of his father, Michael Ibru, who died in 2016 at the age of 86 and on the other hand, the litany of court cases trailing his death from his siblings. The late prominent businessman was married to five wives and had 16 children.
Earlier in the year, one of his brothers, the sociable and stylish Oboden, had approached the Igbosere High Court, Lagos, seeking for a declaration, among others, that he and his 15 other siblings are entitled to their father’s estate. In a counter-claim, another child, Janet, urged the court to declare that only persons whose paternity are confirmed by a diagnostics centre in the United States are entitled to an equal share of the estate. Of course, their late patriarch left behind a vast, multi-billion naira estate spanning publishing, banking, shipping among others but it is being speculated that he might have died intestate.
