Okoya family says it still supports son Fatai
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Punch
The family of Nigerian billionaire Razaq Okoya says his son Fatai continues to receive financial support despite their estrangement. It says it gave him four apartments in Surulere and has sometimes paid his medical bills, in a statement published by Eleganza Industry Limited, according to Punch.
The family of Nigerian businessman Razaq Okoya says his son Fatai continues to receive financial support from his father, despite their decades-long estrangement. In a statement published on Thursday, Nathaniel Omeninwan, public relations officer at Eleganza Industry Limited, said Fatai lived in four apartments his father had given him in Ogunlana, in the Surulere district of Lagos, and that his medical bills had sometimes been paid.
The family also disputes the portrayal of Fatai as Razaq Okoya’s first child, saying he is his third. It says the rift between father and son began before the businessman married Shade Okoya and accuses Fatai of exposing private matters to gain public sympathy and discredit other family members, according to Punch.
Four family associates are said to have intervened more than 40 years ago during a night-time meeting. Following the mediation, Razaq Okoya is said to have agreed to pay Fatai the amount he was demanding. The family also gives a different account of their meeting at a medical outreach held for the businessman’s 86th birthday: Fatai was introduced to Shade Okoya, before a family member advised him not to raise their dispute on that occasion.
