Forget the wealth and status, the gilded and glamorous lives; they don’t necessarily guarantee longevity or contentment in marriage. Grace, patience and tolerance for each other do. Alas, it seems many Nigerian women are running thin on these three virtues

Since news broke recently that Justice Joseph Itsebaga Acha of the Edo State High Court granted the application of billionaire oil magnate, Chief Leemon Ikpea, for his wife, Mrs. Agnes Ikpea, to vacate their family home in Banana Island, Lagos, and to refrain from further causing him any harm, opinions and reactions have been mixed as many who do not know the intricacies of the case have been screaming blue murder. Others have castigated and queried Justice Acha as if he started the legal profession yesterday. For emphasis, Justice Acha is the second most senior Judge in the Edo State High Court hierarchy. So, he is no small fry!

On February 17, 2021, Justice Acha granted Chief Ikpea’sapplication and ordered him to provide suitable accommodation for his wife around Victoria Island, Lekki or anywhere convenient in Lagos outside of Banana Island, Ikoyi, pending the determination of the substantive divorce suit. That was two weeks ago.

It was not until Monday, March 1, that a clearly jaundiced and jejune report surfaced in the social and traditional media that Mrs Ikpea was ejected from the same house the court had asked her to vacate. Pictures of the ‘ejection’ – with her bags and other paraphernalia all neatly arranged in luxury travel bags and sellotaped cartons – were generously displayed, in a move that discerning watchers have interpreted as deliberately whipping up public sentiments.



Contrary to the report that Chief Ikpea didn’t get her accommodation as stated by the court, it was learnt that instead of asking her to go to one of the numerous houses he had acquired for her over the years, Chief Ikpea got his estranged wife a well-appointed apartment in a gated estate in Ikoyi, Lagos. Even her own can attest to this fact, as he okayed and signed to that effect. it. It remains unclear why she is crying blue murder.

And Sources close to the family also posit that Mrs Ikpea was not in short supply of where to move to based on the court order. Before they parted ways, the Ikpeas had six children all of who are now adults and living very well off their father’s affluence. Their 30-year-old son lives in a N450million house in Banana Island bought by Chief Ikpea last November and she could have conveniently moved there. One of her daughters, Augusta Ikpea-Enaholo, also runs the Royal Oaks Event Centre, a multipurpose state-of-the-art event centre in Lekki, commissioned in 2019 by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The event centre, valued at about N850m, was solely funded by Chief Ikpea.



Other children of the Ikpeas all have their multi-million naira businesses and homes courtesy of their father. But it is alleged that the man was never happy in the marriage because every attempt he made to brush his wife up educationally and socially failed. Chief Ikpea reportedly married Agnes as an illiterate from a village in their native Edo State. He gave her everything she wanted in life. He had beautiful plans. The plans were lofty and lovely. But things did not quite go as planned as the character traits of the two partners conflicted with their starry-eyed dreams. Even during their stormy marriage, the man hardly had a breathing space until he could no longer bear her undisguised antagonism to him.

Some of the factors that may also have led to Chief Ikpea deciding to quit the marriage for good include the ingratitude of his children who – despite all he does – are not on speaking terms with him; and his belief that their mother deliberately turned them against him. “After working so hard all his life; and after all he has done for his family – nuclear, extended and even his daughters’ husbands included – Chief Ikpea deserves his peace of mind. The society or his kids should not decide for him where his happiness is,” said a family member of the Ikpeas.



A businessman and philanthropist, Chief Ikpea is an intensely private and media-shy billionaire. Apart from contemporaries in the business circle and a few friends in the political space, he never hugs the limelight like other billionaires. Given that there is no legal or constitutional restriction whatsoever as to which court one can seek divorce in Nigeria, Chief Ikpea chose Benin, Edo State, not because he is from the state or is acquainted with Justice Acha. In fact, sources close to him say he has never met the Justice! However, the obvious media trial against Chief Ikpea not only beggars belief but skirts moral boundaries.

This is an earlier thread detailing madam's side of the story...https://www.nairaland.com/6440406/mother-of-six-asks-court-intervene-husband

I'm still very surprised that until now I haven't heard much about this Billionaire and to make it even more intriguing he is from my country home.

It's confusing why Papa's kids who he claims to have set up in their respective endeavors and doing very well will chose to take their mother's side and not be on speaking terms with him.

Papa's excuse of madam refusing to brush up educationally as a reason for his seeking for divorce despite having being together for almost 4 decades sounds very funny. It sounds more like someone seeing and making uncle Ned Nwoko his mentor and deciding to learn lefty for old age.

I seriously dey suspect all these our small gehs with big gods and their kanyamatas.

Dem don touch papa for where mama never fit touch all these years and papa has now seen the "light".

There sure is more to life than the physical wealth we all crave and know. While it helps to meet our everyday material needs, it definitely doesn't guarantee happiness or filling of other life vacuums as they appear.

Sounds like the usual stories abroad. But not in Nigeria.

Men are now their family victims.

Prepare for your old age, the children will always side with their mothers. If this guy was abroad, he would be crying homeless.

I'm not sure how this is our business, but the moral of the story is marry your spec and your class.
There should be something tangible you see in a partner. Never marry just anyone because you want to get married.

cock and bull story.brush up indeed.
The excuse holds no water.
she was illiterate but kept churning out babies after babies.Her va.Gina wasn't illiterate.

After 40 yrs with her,you remembered that while you climbed the success ladder,the wife who was busy with home affairs remained dormant.KANU Nwankwo brushed up an illiterate Amara so what's your f..cking excuse?

LadySarah:
cock and bull story.brush up indeed.
The excuse holds no water.
she was illiterate but kept churning out babies after babies.Her va.Gina wasn't illiterate.

After 40 yrs with her,you remembered that while you climbed the success ladder,the wife who was busy with home affairs remained dormant.KANU Nwankwo brushed up an illiterate Amara so what's your f..cking excuse?

I get the point you trying to make but stop making it sound as if given birth to the babies...she was doing the man a favour.

Waiting for the man to brush her up was a mistake....In reality would Amara have done same for kanu ..... would she have married him if she was the one that was wealthy.

How many wealthy women married an illiterate man .... just give me one example.

LadySarah:
cock and bull story.brush up indeed.
The excuse holds no water.
she was illiterate but kept churning out babies after babies.Her va.Gina wasn't illiterate.

After 40 yrs with her,you remembered that while you climbed the success ladder,the wife who was busy with home affairs remained dormant.KANU Nwankwo brushed up an illiterate Amara so what's your f..cking excuse?

Do you know the dictionary meaning of illiterate?
How was Amara an illiterate? Kanu sent Amara to University, Yobo too, the ladies went to school while even pregnant. Can an illiterate be a partner in the husband's business or be established like that?
Ask 50% of rich men's girlfriend, children or wife what they do, nothing! They will prefer to bear "Dangote's wife", Otedola's daughter, Davido's baby mama, Kanu's brother, Linda's family etc. When death or anything happens they start to run helter skelter.
If she is educated, should she not have established herself and even buy her own properties in her own name?
Some women see no shame in collecting transport fare for their family members from their husbands.

The person wen post that picture up there is wicked sha!