Sly Tetteh�s Wife Battle Assets

An injunction has been placed on the assets of the late Alhaji Ibrahim Sly Tetteh, the Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Professionals Football Club, by an Accra High Court. This follows an application for interim injunction by Mrs. Winifred Tetteh, the second wife and Anita Adjeley Tetteh, the first daughter of the deceased against the National Chief Imam. Sheik Nuhu Osuman Sharubutu and Nii Larbi Tawiah Oninku, the head of family of Alhaji Tetteh, over the sharing of the 31 listed assets under Islamic laws. The court, presided over by Justice Charles Wilson, granted the application restraining Sheikh Sharubutu and Nii Oninku from meddling in the distributin of the assets, pending the determination of an interlocutory injunction motion pending at the court. The trial judge ordered Ben Quornooh of Alliance Legal firm who moved the application to serve the defendants with the order which is to last 10 day as well as all the processes filed in court. The two women, as plaintiffs, want the vast assets of Alhaji Tetteh to be distributed under the Intestate Succession Law 1985, PNDC Law 111 since the man died without a will. They argued that not only was the distribution of the estate under Islamic laws wrong but also contrary to the law of the land. The plaintiffs informed the court that the family had concluded arrangements with the National chief Imam to distribute the estate and therefore had given his wife, who they saw as a stumbling block, a-seven-day ultimatum to consent to their decision or else they would proceed to share the property. They said if the court did not stop them, it would be detrimental to their interests as beneficiaries of the estate of the deceased since �those who will benefit will speedily dispose of the assets that will be given to them and we will not be able to retrieve them if at the end of this suit we become victorious.� Alhaji Sly Tetteh, a Muslim, died intestate on September 3, 2011, leaving behind two wives and seven children. The deceased left behind a vast estate including majority ownership of Liberty Profession Football Club, a premier league club as well as soccer academics in Kenya, Togo and bank accounts in Ghana and overseas as well as landed properties scattered all over the country. The case of the plaintiff is that on March 6, 2012, after the 40 days of mourning in accordance with Islamic principles, a family meeting was held at the Osu family home of the deceased to appoint a customary successor and administrator for the man�s estate. At the said meeting, one Madam Georgina Sowah, an aunt of the deceased, was appointed as his customary successor and the two wives and first child were nominated administrator of the estate. According to the plaintiffs, the siblings of the deceased objected to these appointments. Despite the outcome of the meeting, the plaintiffs said members of the family had been making moves to have the estate distributed in accordance with Islamic law and contrary to the Intestate Succession Law 1985 PNDC Law 111. According to his second wife, she had received pressure from the family members of the deceased to consent to the distribution of the estate in accordance with Islamic law but she had always refused to bow to their pressures. �The threat by the family to distribute the deceased�s estate in accordance with Islamic law is real and imminent. �Unless this honourable court restrains the defendants, the family and Imam shall proceed to distribute the deceased�s estate in accordance with Islamic law and contrary to the intestate succession law 1985.� The plaintiff�s said if defendants were not restrained but allowed to carry out their threat, the very purpose and idea behind the promulgation of the intestate succession law would be defeated.