By Seidu Razaki
“If the policemen from the Force Intelligence Department (FID) and another Unit of the office of the Inspector General Police (IGP), did not carry out the invasion and offensive search of the matrimonial residence of the late General Christopher Jemitola, to bully his widow, Mrs. Safiya Jemitola, the quarrel over his inheritance, by his children and former wife versus his widow, Safiya, wouldn’t become a subject of public scandal, that had exposed the once-likeable family of the late army general, who was a peaceful man that detested negative publicity”.
An army Major General and closed-friend to the late General Jemitola, informed this reporter and three others, that the army authority was considering a solution to the family crisis, which had been encouraged by police operatives, though he spoke under anonymity.
On the other hand, his utterances tend to buttress an official court indictment, that instead of carrying out a simple court service with few policemen, Mr. Caleb Jemitola, the complainant, took a crowd of policemen and others, to enforce the order, in a rowdiness that has caused public embarrassment.
On a Motion of Exparte, granted on 27th November, 2025 (SUIT NO: PHC/ABJ/CS/2459/2025), access was granted petitioner Caleb Jemitola, to his late father’s house against the respondent stepmother, Mrs. Safiya Jemitola. When the matter came for a hearing few days ago, it was a rebuke for Mr. Caleb Jemitola and his lawyer in the hearing by the Presiding Judge of an Abuja High Court, Hon. Justice B.F.M. Nyako.
The case followed an originating motion filed earlier on 17th November, 2025 by AMA Etuwewe SAN & Co, on human rights grounds, wherein Caleb Jemitola and his sister, Iman Jemitola pleaded to the High Court, for a restraining order, giving him access to the matrimonial home, occupied by his stepmother, Mrs. Safiya Ibrahim Mamman-Jemitola. Caleb had sued Safiya, General Adamu Baba Abubakar (rtd), the Chief of Army Staff, the Nigerian Army and others, in a manner that shocked the army authority, to who his late father owned much respect, more so that it gave him full military burial and honour at death.
With the motion granted, Caleb Jemitola overrode initial orders of an Abuja High Court, presided over by Justice Chizoba N. Oji, in a substantive suit filed on 12th November, 2025, that parties in the suit maintained the status quo, including that Caleb Jemitola stayed away from his father’s residence until determination of the suit that was adjourned to February 10th to 13th of 2026. The suite was filed against Caleb Jemitola, Dr. John Idahosa, Mr. Segun Mecadese, Abodurin Peter Kayode, a Probate Registry of an Abuja High Court, premised on alleged illegal declaration of a purported will of the late General Jemitola.
The same army general, who earlier spoke on anonimity, a closed friend to the late General Jemitola, further volunteered toTHE CONCLAVE and other journalists that, greed and covetiousness were the main cause of the crises in the Jemitola’s household, where he accused the late general’s enstraged wife, Ms Josephine Oki (formerly Mrs Josephine Jemitola), as one who couldn’t manage the after-death affairs of the very man for whom she had two children, Caleb and Iman.
“After many years of marital troubles with her, as characterised by her reckless spending, huge borrowing and unruly behaviour, he finally divorced her, following which he got married to Safiya, his now surviving-wife. When Chris Jemitola passed on, there were bodily clashes that she took to Safiya in her former matrimonial home, where her two children still have main stake. Why set confusion into a household partly owned by your chilldren and for a man you once claimed to love, to the extent that you bore for him children?” He exclaimed, adding that;
“All we are witnessing is a ruthless scramble for my late friend’s property and moves to eject Safiya, his widow, from the matrimonial home. It wouldn’t be shocking as it was expected to us, friends and blood relations of Chris Jemitola, that his ex-wife would behave so awfully after his death. If I may ask, what are the General Jemitola’s inheritances that surpass the happiness of her children? I ask this because I see no meaning in the goading of her children, and even getting personally involve in shoddy police and court litigation businesses, instead of peaceful means? Who is advising her to go astray?
Contrarily, Ms Josephine Oki and her son, Caleb Jemitola, who are in the central of the controversies, had declined press interviews, so as to avail the public with their own sides of the stories. Mrs Safiya Jemitola, the late general’s widow, apart from her protest letter by her lawyer, Nureini Jimoh SAN, to the Inspector General of Police, in condemnation of the alleged invasion of her matrimonial home and continued police persecution, only made few social media posts. She too had declined journalist’s interviews.
It is only by concerted efforts of a group of journalists that media attention is being given to the Christopher Jemitola family crisis.
“We, some journalists, who came to know the late General Christopher Jemitola, will not allow for the smearing of his good name and his legacy as a dedicated soldier. His era as Defence Spokesman was so eventful” Remark, Sam Bukola, a former Defence Correspondent, who had worked alongside the late General Jemitola.
