Veteran Nigerian musician, Ms Uche Ibeto, popularly known as Jigida Queen, has called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate the high court judgment that ordered her eviction from her family house at 36 Ibezim Obiajulu Street, Surulere, Lagos.
The judgment was delivered on July 10, 2025, by Justice O.O. Adewunmi-Oshin of the High Court of Lagos State sitting at Osborne in a suit marked LD/9481GCM/2025 between Cecil Ezem Osakwe (claimant) Vs Laura Okoh & Ifeoma Stella Ilodibe (1st and 2nd defendants) respectively.
She explained that on account of that judgment, which she was not a party to and was never notified of, and which started and concluded in less than a month, the claimant embarked on “unlawful execution on Friday, August 15, 2025, and evicted her forcibly.
She said that her properties worth over N500 million were stolen and damaged during the eviction, including her musical works of art, new studio equipment and funds which her friends and fans donated to enable her to rebound in her musical career.
“The properties of our legal tenants whose tenancies are still valid and subsisting were all sealed up in the building and thugs mounted at the premises since August 15, 2025,” she said, adding that she has been perching from one place to another since then.
“I need to return to my home and resume my life. My health has been negatively impacted by the actions of these criminal elements,” the 72-year-old lamented.
Addressing the press on Saturday amid sympathetic community members, Ms Ibeto, flanked by her lawyers, Okafor Vincent and Onwubualili Sylvester, who are also victims of the execution, explained that the purported defendants in the matter are her elder sisters, who obtained a letter of administration for the personal estate of their late mother, Esther Ibeto that died intestate in June 2013 and not the real property (buildings, lands and other immovable assets).
She insisted that the judgment was deceitfully obtained, adding that the 2nd defendant had denounced the court process that bore her name and gave rise to the court decision, maintaining that she wasn’t part of the court case.
She further explained that investigating police officers, who visited the property to inspect the current state, discovered that the office of one of the tenants, a law firm, had been broken into and burgled by hoodlums who had been mounted in the premises by the claimant.
Consequently, police officers on September 10, 2025, she said, directed all parties to steer clear from the property pending police investigation, and to avoid further breakdown of law and order, but the claimant went back with hired thugs and broke into the premises on Thursday, September 18, 2025 to continue illegal construction, allegedly through the backing of a serving Deputy Inspector General of Police.
“While my lawyers concentrate on pursuing appropriate civil remedies in the court of law, I call on the Lagos state government, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, Inspector General of Police, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Nigerian Bar Association, the National Assembly to intervene as a matter of urgency and advise the said DIG to desist from using his position to interfere with investigation of criminals by police at the Zone 2 command headquarters and at any level.
“The said DIG has been mounting pressure for the release of one of the suspects who is in lawful custody against the order made by a court of competent jurisdiction,” she declared.
However, the claimant, his lawyers, Victor Giwa and Kenneth Joshua, claimed that by the contract of sale dated December 15, 2024, and deed of assignment executed with the administrators of the estate, dated February 8, 2025, he deserves to take possession of the property.
In a 16-paragraph affidavit, the claimant swore that the defendants executed a deed of assignment in his favour on January 8, 2025, after payment was made, but they refused to deliver possession to him three months after, despite covenanting to do so in the contract of sale.
He averred that the defendants are incapable of giving him possession, after two letters written to them to that effect by his lawyers were not complied with, hence the relief sought from the court to forcefully take possession.
However, in the certified true copy of the court’s judgment, Giwa was recorded to have appeared for the claimant, while Joshua, who had previously franked the claimant’s originating summons with Giwa in the same suit, appeared for the defendants.
Also, the 2nd defendant, Mrs Ifeoma Ilodibe, has denied ever selling the property to the claimant or hiring any lawyer to defend her in the matter.
Consequent upon this, she, on September 15, 2025, petitioned the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 2, Onikan, alleging conspiracy, harassment, intimidation, malicious damage to property, forgery, perjury, impersonation, high-scale fraud and threat to her life and that of Ms Uche Ibeto.
“I hereby categorically state that I never signed any documents or gave any consent either to Mrs Laura Okoh or to anyone else to sell our mother’s house at 36 Ibezim Obiajulu Street, Surulere, Lagos, neither did I hire any lawyer to defend me in any court concerning the house as I was never aware of any proceedings in court or any sale transaction in respect of our late mother’s property,” Mrs Ilodibe, one of the personal property administrators’ and a purported 2nd defendant in the suit declared.
