The battle line seems drawn between ex-wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Taiwo, and wife of billionaire businessman, Chief Kessington Adebutu, Rose.
Mrs Rose Adebutu has responded to her in-law’s claim that she didn’t collect money from Chief Adebutu and that her son, Olujonwo didn’t collect money for contracts he never executed from Mr. Segun Adebutu of Petrolex Oil & Gas.
“She is a liar,” Mrs Adebutu responded exclusively to Kemi Ashefon.
“Taiwo is wicked and bent on destroying herself and her son. She lied! Before the wedding, Taiwo lied to Chief Adebutu that her son would not come for the wedding and collected money from him twice pretending as if she would bring Jonwo for the wedding. Imagine!
She was using her son to extort money from us. Taiwo came to Obasanjo’s hilltop mansion, where Tope was living with her son and ate amala prepared by Tope. She commended my daughter and pretended as if she likes her. But she’s a wicked woman and I still don’t understand what she wants to gain from all these.”
Rose and Taiwo are both mothers-in-law to their children—Olujonwo and Tope Obasanjo.
Taiwo, who is Olujonwo’s mum, started the media war in 2017 when she dragged her former husband, Olusegun Obasanjo, Kessington Adebutu and his wife, Rose to court over the wedding plans of Olujonwo and Tope.
She wanted the court to halt the proposed wedding. She lost at the court and the wedding took place on May 11 and 13 2017.
Not many were shocked when trouble sprang up from the union and Taiwo claimed some months after the wedding that her son was missing and that Tope was ill-treating him. Olujonwo refuted this.
But signs that all wasn’t well when Olujonwo had about a week ago dragged his wife, Tope, before the Ogun State Judicial Service Commission and a Lagos State Magistrate’s Court sitting in Igbosere, over allegations of domestic violence, intimidation and threat to his life.
He said on one occasion, his wife slapped him twice and that she was emotionally unstable, aggressive and ready to attack him in the head anytime. He therefore asked the court for an order directing his wife “to stay apart pending when critical issues in the marriage of the parties are determined,” among other prayers.
But in her counter-affidavit, Tope denied being emotionally unstable, saying it was her husband who subjected her to emotional and psychological hardship by abandoning her in his father’s house and rendering himself incommunicado.
She also alleged infidelity on his part, treating her with cruelty and that he was at an unknown location for drug rehabilitation between the end of January and second week of March 2018.
But ex-wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Taiwo, has responded to the claims made by her son’s wife, Tope, saying she (Tope) was bent on destroying her son, Olujonwo Obasanjo.
In a recent interview with Saturday PUNCH, Taiwo said she never took any money from Adebutu and that it was untrue that she and her son were drug addicts, as alleged by Baba Ijebu’s wife.
She said, “I heard they said I took money from him. Chief Adebutu is alive and he can testify whether I collected money from him or not. If I had taken money from him, would I still be able to talk? I never took any money from Chief Adebutu. My son’s wife is just bent on destroying him.
“They also said my son and I are drug addicts, which is a lie. What is the problem if a man wants to quit a marriage that would send him to his grave early?
“They also said my son got a contract worth N35m from Segun Adebutu and that he ran away with the money, which is not true. It is true that he was awarded the job, but he did not abandon the job. He had started executing the job but it was when this problem arose that they called my son to threaten him that there would be war if he decided to leave the marriage. They said they would make sure they finished my son and his wife had said she would destroy him.”
“The unfortunate aspect is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who has done nothing over this issue, and he’s the one prodding my son’s wife and her mother into continuing this because he wanted my son and his wife to stay in the marriage, so that my son could become collateral for him to keep having access to the Adebutu family.
“I leave them all to God because He’s the one who knows how to reveal things done in the secret and pay people back for their deeds. They think I’m not okay, but everything I warned them against is happening. However, I won’t let them destroy my son.”
At this, Rose Adebutu responded, “Jonwo didn’t execute any contract after collecting N35m from Segun Adebutu’s company. Segun Adebutu reasoned that in empowering Jonwo who was earning N100,000 from Obasanjo’s company, he would be able to take care of himself and his new wife. It was a kind gesture from Segun Adebutu and no one threatened Jonwo as his mother implied in her interview.
Taiwo never wanted the marriage, she has succeeded in making her son go on hard drugs. He is in a rehab as we speak. I want her to know that we don’t want the marriage either. I don’t want her to destroy my daughter just as she has done on her son. Let us meet in court.”