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| Adu Boahen`s Wife In Dramatic Eviction Threat |
1/15/2007 |
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Lawyers file writ to have her thrown out of airport matrimonial home
- Moves to allow stay till death before reversion to kids as willed rejected
Royal lawyer Atta Akyea, has filed a legal action on behalf of five children of the late New Patriotic Party (NPP) legend and Professor Emeritus Albert Adu Boahen, seeking to throw out his surviving widow and wife of over 35 years out of the airport matrimonial home less than two months after his burial after years of being bed-ridden with a heart condition.
Mrs. Mary Adu Boahen, doted on and babied the departed former Presidential candidate of the NPP throughout the seven odd years that the Prof was bed-bound and posted sole sentry at his bedside every night in a an Earl’s court hospital in the United Kingdom and at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
Five of the late professor’s adult children, all professionals, including a lawyer, a doctor and a South African-based investment banker have commenced the action seeking a declaration that the will executed by the late Professor, in December 2001 is a forgery and therefore should be voided, and that the Prof’s last will executed by him thirty six years ago, in 1975, should be the one that should be admitted to probate.
The 2001 Will provides that the children of the late Prof inherit the house after the death of Mrs. Adu Boahen, a hypertensive, who is in and out of hospitals.
However, Messrs Zoe, Akyea & Co is seeking a perpetual injunction on behalf of Akua Kisiwa Adu Boahen based in the UK, Kwabena Amankwa, Charles Kofi Asare and Freda Tiapei Adu Boahen, restraining Mrs. Adu Boahen ‘from interfering in the estate of her deceased husband.
‘Auntie Mary’ as she is affectionately called is expected to leave the house immediately, according to the wishes of the applicants.
The court action joined Mr. Michael Dugan, the treasurer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwame Adusei Poku of Osiem, and the Prof. hometown, and Kofi Asare Poku of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Lafayette, in the United States.
The suit has kicked off, despite the best efforts of friends and family members to stay the court action because of the potential embarrassment that a full-blown court hearing could cause due to the insistence that the new December 2001 Will, is a forgery because of the circumstances of the late professor’s health.
Sources close to the family have told The Chronicle that the case is likely to make the Prof. turn in his grave because it is the last thing he would have wished for.
The original Will bequeaths the Drave Avenue, Airport Residential Area property and No. 110 Roman Ridge Ambassadorial Estate, Accra to his children Akua Kisiwa, Kwabena Amankwa, Kofi Asare and Kwaku Adu Boahen.
Additionally, the Will reads: ‘I give and devise my undeveloped plot of land situate at Dzorwulu, Accra to my wife Janet Adu Boahen to have and to hold absolutely.’
Significantly, ‘my wife Janet Adu Boahen’ has been divorced from the late Professor for more than thirty years and the children lived with Mrs. Mary Adu Boahen, who was later married to the divorced Prof.
The fourth paragraph of the last testament of the Prof also contained a provision that land at Mampong Akwapim, where his father comes from, be given to his brothers and sisters and shared equally among them during their lifetime and passed on to the children of ‘my two sisters and my daughters absolutely’.
The History Department and the Balm Library both of the University of Ghana were also listed as beneficiaries of Adu Boahen’s manuscripts, field and research notes and tapes.
‘I give and bequeath all royalties from my books and other publications and my dividends, shares or stocks in any company to my children by my wife Jane to have in equal shares.’
The last paragraph bequeaths ‘all my real and personal property of what nature or kind whatsoever and my household furniture, crockery, vehicles, pictures and other personal effects being in and upon my dwelling house at Legon to my children by my wife Jane Adu Boahen’.
It was dated September 25, 1975 under his own signature.
Mrs. Adu Boahen has four grown children from an earlier marriage, including a US-based doctor and a professor.
Source:
Chronicle
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