Lagos socialite, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu has gone through so much in the past few months as she lost two of the men in her life. First it was the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade with whom she had a child, that gave up the ghost, this was followed by the late billionaire, Ambassador Deinde Fernandez, who she had two children for.

However, the latest claims by Erelu Dosunmu that she made the late Dehinde Fernandez are contrary to what transpired between her and Fernandez sometime in 2007. Sources close to the duo claimed that the battle for the vast estate left by Fernandez is the cause of the claims being made by the woman.

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu

We were reliably informed that close friends of the duo are reading meaning into the issue, and that the family of Fernandez are interested in the matter as they doubted the paternity of her second child to him. The first child is named, Oyinkansola, and the girl’s godfather is the late Adetokunbo Ademola.

The family of Dehinde Fernandez had come out in 2007 that there was no marriage between Abiola and Dehinde and asked why she did not subject her second child to DNA test. Abiola, we gathered had issues with Fernandez over her alleged romance with former petroleum minister in Nigeria, Professor Tam David West before she and Fernandez went their separate ways.

Writing under the title; “At last ‘the veil is lifted,’ Erelu Dosunmu stated that “we discovered our families were old friends and after all the initial courtesies and ceremonies, we got married in April 1973. It was with great pomp and pageantry in the palace of the then Oba of Lagos with the wedding reception attended by several dignitaries including the then Governor Lawal. We waited on the Lord for our baby to arrive and in March 1976, our daughter Oyinkan Antoinette Fernandez (whom you named after your mother and first daughter of your mum) was born,” she said.

Erelu said that she was in the process of completing the purchase of “Habib Building” on Berkeley Street, Onikan when Fernandez exclaimed ‘How can you have a property like that when I do not have a leaf in Nigeria?’

‘I had it transferred to you at cost to the amazement of the Habib family. For me whatever was mine was yours and whatever was yours was mine. I carried out the renovation of the three office floors, 34 residential flats and built private rooms for us on the 18th floor, while providing jobs to teeming Nigerians. The rooms still stand till today despite the fear of professional engineers.

She claimed further in the write-up that “having succeeded in making you come back to Nigeria, we embarked on the business of creating wealth. Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson (still a living witness) gave us twenty hectares of land on Badagry Road to build our first factory. I reassured him you were not going to be an absentee landlord and as the senior officer to my late husband he gave us every support. As usual I sprung into action and almost pestered the life out of Engineer Segun Jawando to facilitate the sand filling of the land, as it was a swampy area.”

Dehinde Fernandez had claimed then that the picture where both of them adorn traditional attires was on the occasion of their being conferred with chieftaincy titles and not traditional wedding as falsely claimed by Erelu Abiola.

Sources said that Dehinde punctured the claim by Erelu Abiola that she helped him in building the refrigerator factory in Badagry, Lagos and that if Fernandez were alive, he would have also dismissed the claim that she wanted to buy the 16 storey building comprising 34 residential flats and office apartments, which was later named ‘Tower Fernandez’, but that she sold it to him.

Fernandez had said then that, when he met Erelu Abiola, she had no money and that she was running a small, petty jewellery shop on Lagos Island and wondered, where she would have got the money in wanting to buy a skyscraper, which was later named ‘Tower Fernandez’ and that he had pity on her as a young widow then having just lost her husband, a young army officer with two or three children to cater for.

Erelu said further in the article that “Next was the “Fernandez Food Corporation”. We competed with Uncle Bens Rice by acquiring rice from the same source and packaging it in our factory on Badagry road; we also ventured into the manufacturing and packaging and distribution of other foods. Many illustrious Nigerians were our valued customers and distributors including the revered Mama Awolowo who was very kind to me and a lot more people were empowered through the factory. I was the businessperson and you were the philanthropist with a heart of gold who being almost generous to a fault, gave a lot away without payment!”

Those close to the duo said that the woman is only capitalizing on the death of the philanthropist to make the claims ascribed to her.

“She is just wasting her time; nobody would believe what she is saying. The woman has lost focus. We cannot allow her come near our family. She was not our wife, we doubt her sincerity and we will do all we can to ensure that she does not rubbish the legacy of our son, Dehinde Fernandez. All what she wrote in the article are false, we will never compromise, we will make sure that she fails in her latest calling,” said a member of Fernandez’ family.