The family of late Chinwe Okoledo, a deceased staff of the National Orthopedic Hospital Enugu, has accused the Co-operative Society of the hospital of fraud over its attempts to stop them from inheriting the landed property she paid for.
The family also accused the hospital’s cooperative society of extortion and frustrating all efforts made to recover the said property.
The family in a Save Our Soul call to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, through their lawyer, Ike Obeta esq. said that the leadership of the co-operative led by its President, Engr Philip Ugwuonah have continued to extort them, yet have also refused to handover the said landed property purchased by their daughter who was a senior staff dietician at the hospital before her death in January 2014.
The family said their deceased daughter, Chinwe was a member National Orthopedic hospital co-operative society Enugu. “She bought and paid for 2 plots of land under the Co-operative society that acquired the estate for members who can afford it, the land was bought from the cooperative society between 2011.
“At her death in 2014, we proceeded to get clearance for her pensions, gratuities and the landed property. We got all the clearance but had delays in getting the landed documents. Eventually, when we pressured them with our family lawyer, they brought some documents and handed them over. They took us to the site and showed us the 2 plots of land belonging to our late daughter at Amorji Nike close to Caritas University.
“In September 2020, we went to the site only to be chased out by persons who said they are representing the national Orthopedic co-operative society Enugu. Then we inquired and got the current president Mr Philip Ugwuona who confirmed to us that the former allocation had been revoked and new allocation from the new leadership is ongoing.
“Then we presented our case to him that because our sister was late, we didn’t know about the revocation which Mr Philip Ugwuona acknowledged that he knows about our late sister’s land ownership and that if we are serious, we should pay #230,000 for the new allocation.
“We informed him that we have made several other payments in 2014 when we got the initial documents, that it would amount to double charges if he is asking us to pay another #230,000.
“Mr Philip Ugwuona then told us that that’s the only condition we can have back the 2 plots of land that belong to our late sister.
“At that point, we had to pay the #230,000 within the 24 hours he instructed us to. He confirmed the payment and told us to wait until they fully processed the new documents. We waited till March 2021 when they started giving others the new documents. We called for our own but he said that we should wait and since March, he has not been taking our calls.
“Mr Philip Ugwuona and his partner secretary, Mr Uchenna Odoh of the cooperative society were boasting that any court we like we should take them to, that they have all the connections to frustrate the case”, the family said.
The family further pleaded with President Buhari and the Minister of Health to look into the fraudulent way through which Mr Ugwuonah and cohorts are desperately trying to steal that which belonged to their late daughter who died in her service to the country.
