Drama At The Funeral of Tosin Ajayi, Husband Of Helen Prest-Ajayi

There was a mild drama on Thursday 12th February, 2021 at the funeral of Dr Tosin Ajayi of First Foundation Medical Centre and husband of former beauty queen Helen Prest-Ajayi, which took place in Lagos.

The funeral came 10 months after Ajayi’s death at St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos on April 26, 2020.

Ajayi died on 1st April 2020, but his children dragged his wife, Helen Prest to court and stalled all burial plans since then.

The court however, gave judgement recently for the burial to take place.

The funeral was attended by the former Miss Nigeria, Ajayi’s first wife Yemisi, children of the deceased, friends and family.

We were told that there was commotion at the graveside over the dust to dust rite.

The drama ensued when older children of the deceased struggled for shovel at the grave side with Helen Priest, who was their father’s second wife.

It was gathered that the burial ceremony was going on peacefully according to the court rulings that both wives should be given equal rights throughout the burial ceremony until the Pastor of Shepherdhill Baptist Church, Israel Kristilere reportedly went against the court ruling that after the former first wife, Oluwayemisi Ajayi has finished performing dust to dust rites, the next person should be Helen Prest – Ajayi who was his present wife before his demise.

We were informed that Pastor Israel Kristilere insisted that the former first wife’s children should do the rites and this caused a commotion and argument between both parties at the graveside.

It was revealed that the elder children of the deceased struggled and scuffled with Helen Prest Ajayi over the mini shovel, and forcefully dragged it from her.

The delay in burying Dr Ajayi was caused by a legal battle launched by Yemisi and her five children.

Ajayi got married to Yemisi, a retired chief nursing officer with the Lagos State Government, over 40 years ago but the couple separated after 23 years.

He subsequently went into a relationship with Helen, and the two had a daughter together.

Although Ajayi and his first wife were separated, they were not divorced until the time of his death.

Attempts by Yemisi’s five children to retrieve their father’s corpse from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital proved impossible because the death certificate and other documents needed at the mortuary were with Helen.

The children said they suspected foul play in their father’s death because they were not notified of his passing until days after and that Helen took away some vital documents from his office.

After months of legal battle, the court ruled that the burial should go ahead and that both women and their children should be part of the exercise.

However, the children of the deceased have issued a statement that Helen Priest was never married to their father and insisted that the deceased never divorced their mother, his first wife, who they said he married legally in 1974.