A 27-year-old man from Delta State has claimed that Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is his father.
The man, identified as Emmanuel Sanwo-Olu, told reporters at the premises of High Court 2 in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta, that the Lagos governor is his father.
The father of three insisted that “I am the son of Governor Sanwo-Olu.”
He said that his mother only had him for Governor Sanwo-Olu before marrying another man, for whom she had other children.
“I just want to see the man as my father,” he said, adding that, “For the past twenty seven years, I have not seen my father”.
Emmanuel Sanwo-Olu said he works “casual jobs” to support his wife and three children.
Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins Esq, counsel for the claimant, stated that the matter was before the court. The case of his client, Emmanuel Sanwo-Olu, against Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The matter was heard today, according to the legal practitioner and former 1st Vice President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA.
He said, “The lawyers to Sanwo-Olu, Templas law firm, had earlier filed a motion to strike out the matter on the grounds that the governor was not ready to wave his immunity.”
Aikpokpo-Martins also stated that he had filed an application requesting that the governor waive his immunity in order for him to come for a DNA test.
According to the legal practitioner, “We are expecting that he will do that if indeed, he is sure that he is not the father of the claimant. But unfortunately, he invoked his immunity to say he is immune against law suits and he is not ready to wave it.
“Upon that, they brought the application that the Court should not hear the matter. The Court should strike out the matter.”
While pointing out that the matter was for hearing, Aikpokpo-Martins said, “We ourselves, we are not ready. I pleaded with the other side to give us time to see if this matter can be resolved. Resolved in the essence that if the governor will just wave his immunity and come for a DNA test.
“If he is sure that he is not the father of the boy, why should he be afraid of submitting himself to a DNA?
“We have situation where somebody that’s the claimant who wants to be aware of who he is but he has stated clearly in the case that, he has no family. His mother’s family is just half a family. They all know that he is the child of a woman and we know culturally, the child of a woman does not belong to that family. His rights are curtailed and things like that. And he is already having children. They need to know who they are.”
Aikpokpo-Martins urged the Lagos State Governor to validate the paternity of his client saying, “nothing more to it.”
“From now till the next adjourned date which is January 17th, let’s see whether morally his conscience can be appealed to or bring himself forward for a DNA text with Emmanuel. It does not need to be in the press. It can be done quietly. Nobody wants to actually make noise with him but he has actually extremely proven very difficult to scientific verification with the claimant.
“If it happens that Emmanuel is not his son, he goes home. It’s a very simple thing. But if it’s his own, then the young man will be happy that at least, he knows where he comes from. By then, he now has the power and authority to go into the Sanwo-Olu family as a member of the family.”
