IBADAN, Nigeria — Oluwatoyin Alao-Aderinto, the first daughter of late Oyo State Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, has asked an Oyo State High Court to order a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to establish the paternity of seven individuals claiming to be children of the deceased.
The motion, filed under suit number I/443/2024, seeks judicial clarification over the true heirs of the late politician amid a growing legal dispute over the administration and distribution of his estate.
Alao-Aderinto, through her counsel Oladipo Olasope (SAN), is asking the court to mandate a DNA test on herself and six others — Olamide, Adebukola, Olamipo, Olamiju (a current member of the House of Representatives), Tabitha, and Olamikunle — at an accredited, court-approved facility.
As part of her request, she is also seeking an order for the exhumation of Alao-Akala’s remains to extract DNA material necessary for comparison.
She asked that test results be submitted to the presiding judge in sealed form and only opened during court proceedings.
Late Alao-Akala, who governed Oyo State from 2007 to 2011, died on January 12, 2022, at the age of 71 in Ogbomoso.
Since his death, the family has been embroiled in a succession dispute, particularly regarding access to and control over the late governor’s expansive estate.
The substantive suit names Kemi Alao-Akala, widow of the deceased, and Olamide Alabi, one of the alleged children, as defendants.
Alao-Aderinto alleges that the two women obtained a letter of administration over her father’s estate without due consultation or consent from other children of the deceased.
She is asking the court to declare the said letter of administration “illegal, null, and void,” and to issue a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from selling, transferring, or tampering with any assets belonging to the late governor.
In a supporting affidavit, Alao-Aderinto accused the defendants of excluding other biological children from benefiting from the estate and manipulating documents to secure sole control over the deceased’s properties.
The estate reportedly includes multiple properties in Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with several luxury vehicles, a five-star hotel in Ghana, and numerous bank accounts holding substantial sums in naira, U.S. dollars, and British pounds sterling.
