A Lagos state high court sitting in Ikeja has declared Adenike Oluwayemisi Ajayi the sole lawful widow of Tosin Ajayi, the late founder and chief executive officer of First Foundation Hospital ending a prolonged legal battle over his marital status and estate.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Oluwayoyin Odusanya, the court granted all the reliefs sought by Ajayi and her children, while dismissing the claims of former beauty queen Helen Prest, who had sought recognition as a spouse of the deceased medical practitioner.
The dispute, which began in 2021 following Dr Ajayi’s death on April 26, 2020, centred on competing claims to his estate and the identity of his lawful surviving spouse.
Justice Odusanya held that Mrs Ajayi remained legally married to the late doctor until his death, stressing that their monogamous marriage was never formally dissolved despite years of separation.
The court ruled that separation alone, regardless of its duration, does not terminate a valid marriage without a legal dissolution process.
A key aspect of the case was Helen Prest’s claim that she entered into a Kalabari customary marriage with Dr Ajayi. However, the court found that she failed to provide convincing evidence to support the assertion.
The judge described the claim as an afterthought, noting inconsistencies in Prest’s previous legal positions, where she had at different times described herself as a common-law partner and a civil-law spouse of the deceased.
According to the court, Prest was unable to establish crucial elements of the alleged customary marriage, including when and where it took place, while no documentary or photographic evidence was presented to support the claim.
The court further held that even if such a marriage had taken place, it would have been invalid because evidence showed that Prest was still legally married to her former husband, identified as Davies, at the time she allegedly married Ajayi.
Consequently, the court affirmed Ajayi as the only legally recognised spouse of the late hospital founder and dismissed all claims by Prest.
Justice Odusanya also upheld Ajayi’s entitlement to one-third of Ajayi’s personal estate and ruled that she is the only spouse qualified to apply for letters of administration over the estate.
