BY TONY OVBOSA
When the late retired army general, Christopher Adewole Jemitola, made his indelible marks in the Nigerian military service, through hard work and due diligence, which accomplishments earned him respect and rapid elevation on the army’s rungs, known for strict discipline and earnestness, he might have had a slight forewarning that shortly after his death, the family he had devotedly built, could go into internecine fights. The fights stemmed from his alleged divorced wife, Ms. Josephine Oki, who is purported to have goaded his children to eject his surviving-widow, Mrs. Safiya Ibrahim Mamman-Jemitola, from her matrimonial home, over counter-claims to the properties he left behind.
General Jemitola, a former Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, had held critical army positions such as Defence Spokesperson and Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP) before he passed on after retirement.
In a recent news report, THE CONCLAVE, chronicled how the matrimonial residence of the late soldier, located in a serene and highbrow vicinity of Asokoro District of Abuja, was turned into a battlefield. Although THE CONCLAVE couldn’t immediately assess the damages allegedly caused by a score of policemen and thugs, brought in by Mr. Caleb Jemitola, son of the late soldier, this writer later visited the mansion, where he witnessed the damages.
From the outside gate to its top floor, Mrs. Safiya Jemitola took him around to several burgled gates and solid metal doors, on the part of the house, where she lives. She also showed two dumps of sand, near the motor garage, brought in by hired thugs, threatening that her grave was being prepared, even when the policemen allegedly carried out the invasion. Mrs. Safiya Jemitola had earlier shared recorded videos to buttress her claims.
She said she smelt a rat in the police handling of the matter and that a high ranking police from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), led the sting operations, which had been widely condemned by a discerning public. Several inquiry visits to the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Abuja, ASP Benjamin Hundeyin had been fruitless, as he was out of office. While his comments are reserved for more reports to come, some anonymous sources within his unit, however, disproved that the IGP Kayode Egbetokun, has personal interests in the alleged travails of Mrs. Safiya Jemitola, neither did he thwart efforts to get the IGP’s Monitoring Unit to investigate the criminal charges leveled against his son, the police and others.
Intimate associates and blood relations of the late general attest to the Jemitola in-house crisis. “Safiya got married in 2024 to my late friend and colleague, Chris Jemitola in 2024, through elaborate wedding ceremony. There, his family members and those of Safiya, were gathered to give it a blessing. The event was also attended by me, some of his other friends and his son, Caleb. I was reliably told that Caleb and his sister, Iman, were prodded by their mother, Josephine and other instigators, to cause the commotion we now hear about, leading to the invasion of the family house and failed attempts to eject the Safiya-widow, their stepmother. When I constantly visited my late friend in their residence, the family, together with the two children and stepmother, lived in harmony”. Responded, an army general, who didn’t want his name mentioned.
Two other friends of the late Chris Jemitola, who also craved for anonymity, had reasoned that they did not want to dishonour the good nature of their late friend and colleague, Chris Jemitola, whom they regarded “as a man of peace, who despised media publicity, after he served as Defence Spokesperson for the entire Nigerian army.
However, a closed family relation and a friend of the late general, who hailed from Ososo, Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State, agreed that they were privy to the divorce suit and terms of settlement between the late general and Josephine. After much persuasion by our reporters, a close colleague of the late soldier had volunteered to provide the court divorce papers and other vital documents, which he said the late general had entrusted to him and could help resolve the crisis.
A terms of settlement (SUIT NO: PET/519/2022) filed on 2/5/23 at an Abuja High Court, Mr. Christopher Adewole Jemitola, the late general, was reached, via an amendment of an original suit filed on 25th November, 2022, thus leading to her final divorce. Including a montsettlement Two separate apartment C4, Stalion Estate, Maitama and and number 4, Udi Hills Street, Abuja, were reserved for her use only, and not to be sold, but to be transferred to her children.
An anonymous relation of the late general, said they would absolve Mrs. Safiya Jemitola of the blame of going to the court to seek her rights in the court, on the inheritance and other contending matters.
A telephone call was put across to Madam Josephine, who is said to be at the centre of the crises. It was an initial disagreement with this reporter, whom she said was bought over to report rubbish against her and her children. On a friendly tone, she uttered that she had nothing to tell the press, in the same manner Mr. Caleb Jemitola, her son, responded to THE CONCLAVE, in the first report. “The matter is before the law court, which means that the matter shouldn’t be deliberated upon outside of it”. She retorted.
In an Abuja High Court of Justice, on a SUIT NO: FCT/CV/2121/25, filled on 12th November, 2025, before the Hon. Justice Chizoba N. Oji, the Presiding Judge, MrsMrsefiya Jemitola sued Dr. John Idahosa, Mr. Segun Mekadese and Abodunri Peter Kayode, Esq., and the Probate Registrar, High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, based on a purported unlawful reading of an illegal will of the late general. The Court, which adjourned the matter to 10th to 13th February, 2026, for accelerated hearing, moved for possible out-of-court settlement, whilst cautioning the parties to maintained the status quo, including that Caleb Jemitola also remain outside of the matrimonial home.
The pertinent question is whether or not Madam Josephine was fair in her claim of not responding to the press inquiries, over a court declaration, whereas another court order was obtained and enforced by her son, Caleb Jemitola, upon the same order, which allegedly turn round to a trauma and an invasion by a crowd of policemen and thugs, in the same house he was Caleb was legally barred from?
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