Fact-check: Did Late Herbert Wigwe Unveil Multi billion Naira Mansion Weeks Before his Death?

Fact-check: Did Late Herbert Wigwe Unveil Multi billion Naira Mansion Weeks Before his Death?

Claim: There is a viral video, across virtually all the social media platforms claiming that a  multi billion naira palatial mansion in Ikoyi, Lagos State was unveiled by late Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Access Bank Plc,.

Full Text: The viral video  claimed that  the late banker opened the mansion late  last  year, in December, 2023. It has the  following text accompanying it: “Herbert Wigwe’s palatial mansion in Lagos. It was opened last December, 2023. Life… like a poor player, who frets and struts his hour on a stage and is suddenly found no more. Indeed, it’s a walking shadow. All is vanity”.! 

Several  Nigeria based blogs as well as that of Ghana also posted the viral video claim on their websites with the caption: “What the luxurious home of late Access Bank founder which he moved into just weeks ago looks like.”

Recalled that Wigwe was among six people who died on 9 February 2024 after the Eurocopter EC130 in which they were travelling crashed near Nipton, California. Also killed were his wife Chizoba, his son Chizi, former Nigerian Exchange Group Plc Chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo, and two crew members. They were on their way from Palm Springs International Airport to Boulder City, Nevada on a charter flight operated by Orbic Air to attend the National Football League championship game, Super Bowl LVIII, in Las Vegas.

Verification: While verifying the authenticity of the claim, PRNigeria discovers that Dele Momodu, a veteran journalist, and founder of Ovation Magazine posted it on his Instagram page, “delemomoduovation“, with the caption: “Late Herbert Wigwe’s’s multi-billion naira private house in Ikoyi, Lagos opened late December 2023. May his soul rest in peace”. 

Further checks by PRNigeria revealed that the duo of Nigerian business moguls, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Mr Femi Otelodola were hosted to a dinner by the late Access Bank CEO in the mansion he newly built in Lagos,  according to Otelodola’s mourning post on X, formally Twitter. Otedola in the short  post recalled the dinner with Dangote at late banker’s new home. The post attracted 677 thousand views, 10,400likes and 1,314 reposts.

Furthermore, PRNigeria discovers that the late banking Czar Wigwe demonstrated an uncommon taste for luxury real estate with the opening of his iconic mansion which ‘wowed’ the great and mighty in Nigeria. According to Business Day report the Wigwe mansion, nestled on Queens Drive in Ikoyi-the home of sizzling and breath-taking luxury real estate in Nigeria, has been the major discourse among real estate buffs since his death because of its opulence, size and cost that runs into billions of naira.

It added that state-of-the-art, multi-billion naira piece of infrastructure that sits on 23,000 square metres, an equivalent of the size of land on which Ikeja City Mall is built, and that  It is a fully automated residential building with over 80 percent of materials imported. The mansion’s cost has been estimated variously at N10 billion and N30 billion and took the contractor 22 months to complete. 

Conclusion: Findings by PRNigeria revealed that Dele Momodu, a veteran journalist, top Nigerian industrialist billionaire, Femi Otedola and other credible sources confirmed the hosting of a dinner by the late Wigwe in his new mansion weeks before his death. 

PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim that palatial multi billion naira mansion that was unveiled last year belonged to late Herbert Wigwe, the Access Bank group  CEO, is TRUE. 

By PRNigeria