Fani-Kayode Disowns Three Children From Ex-Wife

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Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister, and
his family have disowned three children from Fani-
Kayode’s former wife, Yemisi, questioning their
paternity.

Fani-Kayode is said to have disowned three
children from his previous marriage.
A representative of the family, Felix Olawunmi,
made this known in an article published by Premium
Times on Saturday, August 8.

The article describes a turbulent post-marital
relationship between the former minister and Yemisi.
It also becomes clear that the issue of the children’s
parenthood had been on for years. The family said
Yemisi, the daughter of a former Lagos state judge,
repeatedly refused to allow the three girls undergo a
paternity examination, as requested by the Fani-
Kayodes.

The former minister noted that for years he and his
family had restrained themselves from going public on
the matter. He added that they became upset after
This Day recently published a “libellous” piece about
him and his former wife.


His family said they would no longer have anything to
do with the three children and their mum, Yemisi.

FFK, who recently changed his name to celebrate
acquittal, confirmed to Premium Times that the
article represented position of himself and the family
on the matter. He also confirmed that the author,
Felix Olawunmi, was authorised to write on behalf
of the family.

Read the full text below, without alterations:

‘Fani-Kayode Takes Good Care of His Children’
By Felix Olawunmi
The piece titled: “Temitope Fani-Kayode’s blissful
conjugal” published in This Day of last week
Saturday contained huge incorrect and misleading
information. The motive, source and credibility of the
information published are highly doubtful. Nigerians
are urged to discountenance the disparaging remarks
made against Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in the
publication. As a member of the Fani-Kayode
family and one who has followed closely the life and
career of Femi-Fani-Kayode for almost 50 years,
I believe it is pertinent for me to set the record
straight. In 1989 or thereabout, Femi got involved
with Yemisi Adeniji, the daughter of Justice Adeniji
of the Lagos State high court. He had been married
previously to his first wife, Saratu Attah, in 1987,
and had a child with Saratu whose name is Folake
who was born in 1987 but by that time Saratu and
Femi had separated.


Yemisi and Femi got very close and spent much of the
time together and eventually she got pregnant. When
she got pregnant, the issue of marriage came up.

Femi’s father, the late Chief Remilekun Fani-
Kayode, objected to the marriage because he believed
that Yemisi was not a stable character and was not a
serious minded person. He also had lots of contempt
for her background. Femi insisted on going ahead
with the marriage simply because Yemisi had said that
she was carrying a child and that if he didn’t marry
her, she would kill herself and the child inside her.

It was on that basis that they proceeded and got
married. Femi’s father refused to attend the marriage
ceremony and told him that it would not last because
he could see through Yemisi. Femi’s mother attended
the marriage and Chief Duduyemi who was like a
son to Femi’s father came to represent the father.

Once the marriage took place and everything was
initially okay, they went to the UK to have the
child. But throughout the marriage from the
beginning to the end, it was turbulent and unpleasant.
They had two children – Temitope and Tobiloba.
Both of them were born abroad.

Throughout the period, Femi did his best to look
after them but Yemisi was always going out and found
it difficult to be a responsible and decent wife. By
1993, it got to a point that Femi almost had a
nervous breakdown and instead of her standing by
him, not only did she desert him, she went out and
had extra-marital affairs. Another child was
conceived in 1993, the child was born later on in the
year and that child’s name is Tumininu. But right
from the outset, Femi said that she was not his child.

I remember Femi telling me that he never touched
Yemisi throughout that year, “yet, she maintained that
it was my child.”

At the end of 1993, Femi went to the Bible
Seminary in Ghana. No sooner had he left than she
said she would never have anything to do with him
again and that was where the marriage completely
broke down.

There was another development that affected the
relationship. Yemisi’s father was implicated by the
Justice Kayode Esho panel that probed the Nigerian
judiciary and the recommendation was that he be
kicked out for corruption. Yemisi and her father told
everybody that cared to listen that it was Femi’s
father that was behind this. Throughout that period
and regardless of the fact that they had separated,
Femi did his best to send money to Yemisi and school
fees and allowances for the children.

When Femi’s father died in 1995, he came back to
Nigeria. The family questioned the paternity
especially of the last child, Tumininu, and not only
that, they were so disgusted by Yemisi’s behavior and
the insults and the things she kept saying about the
family that nobody wanted her and her children to
attend the burial. That was why their names were
not listed among Femi’s father’s grandchildren during
the burial notices. They forced themselves on the
Christian wake-keeping.


After that, and for a number of years, Femi
remained in touch. He kept sending her money for the
children. He kept doing his best to take care of them.
Even when Femi went to Ghana on exile in 1996
and came back again to Nigeria in 2001, throughout
that period, he was in touch. He kept sending money
to all three children irrespective of the uncertainty
over their paternity. He took care of their school
fees; he took care of their needs and gave as much as
he possibly could. By 1995, he formally divorced
Yemisi and inside the affidavit of divorce, he wrote
there that one of the reasons was because he
questioned the paternity of especially the last child.
For fear of being exposed about the real paternity of
the children, Yemisi offered to settle out of court and
the divorce eventually went through and that was the
end of it.

After that, Femi got married to Regina his third
wife in 1997 and moved on with life as she did as
well. He had a child from that union by name
Remilekun in 1997 and spent most of his time in
Ghana but eventually, he came back to Nigeria.
Throughout those years, he kept sending money to the
three children by Yemisi. He did his very best despite
the fact that all through the years, all that Yemisi
Adeniji did was to abuse him, insult him and tell lies
about his family.

When in 2001, Femi returned to Nigeria and Yemisi
reached him and he saw the children from time to
time. He did his best for them throughout that
period. Eventually, he got into government and all
she ever did was just to demand for money. He did
his best for her. He kept on doing the best he could
do; he kept on taking care of the children.
When Femi was appointed a minister, Yemisi tried
her best to scuttle his ministerial clearance in the
Senate by telling lies about him all over the place but
she failed. After he was confirmed as a minister, she
now decided to settle with him and tried to restore a
reasonable relationship and she begged for help. Femi
assisted her and the three children. He even bought a
house for her in London.

Femi did all these purely out of compassion and not
because he owed her anything. Quite apart from that,
throughout that period, he was taking care of the fees
of the children, by cheque, by transfer, by cash and
he was seeing the children regularly. When Femi
stopped being minister and EFCC started hounding
him, she then started sending abusive text messages
and saying he was going to go to jail.


What caused that hatred was simply the fact that
Femi was happily married to somebody else and had
moved on with his life. Nevertheless, Femi still
interacted with the children for quite some time.
Eventually she poisoned the mind of the children that
not even the children themselves ever acknowledged
nor ever came to court to support Femi during the
case. Femi refused to have anything to do with them
from 2012 onwards. From that period, he cut himself
off completely and Yemisi’s desperation got more.
Yemisi was granting series of interviews, denigrating
him, running him down and saying he had done
nothing for the children.

Eventually, a few weeks back, Femi read on the
internet that one of the children was getting married.
Once he read that, he reached out to the Randle
family saying that “if you are getting married to
anybody that bears the name Fani-Kayode, we
should know about it”, but he said Yemisi objected to
Femi’s family having anything to do with the
marriage and that if he wanted to have anything to do
with the marriage, he should try and settle everything
between them first. So, Femi’s family members met
with the Randles and with Yemisi’s mother.

Femi’s family asked uncles like Chief Alex
Duduyemi to intervene because they would not
participate in this wedding unless one condition was
satisfied and that condition was this, that all the three
children have a paternity test. Despite Femi’s pleas
that his family should try and overlook that, they said
no way.

So when they said they would not go for the
paternity test, Femi’s family said they would not have
anything to do with the wedding. The family has it on
good authority that the July 5th day set for the
wedding was in the hope that Femi would have been
jailed by then and that his being jailed would also be
celebrated at the wedding. The Randle family didn’t
reach out to Femi’s family, and in Yoruba tradition.

All Femi’s family asked for was a paternity test
which they refused to do. Once it was clear that all
the discussions did not bear any fruit, the family as
led by the head of the Fani-Kayodes now took a
decision that a few days before the marriage, they
would take a full page advert and also announce on
television that the girl was not their daughter and that
she has nothing to do with the family.

But at the last minute, Femi intervened and
appealed to all the elders to just ignore them and
leave them. They had the first ceremony, they had the
second ceremony, they had the third ceremony, not
one of Femi’s family members attended. The only one
that attended was Femi’s first daughter, Folake, and
she did that with his understanding.

The talk that Femi didn’t do anything for the
children is all rubbish. He did plenty for the children.
They said that he was beating Yemisi while pregnant.
It is all lies. If he was beating her, why did she stay
to purportedly have two more children? Why should
anybody be concerned about things that happened in a
marriage that finished almost thirty or twenty five
years ago? Femi has moved on. He has a very good
relationship with the mother of Folake. He has a
good relationship with Folake. He has a very good
relationship with the mother of Remilekun. He has a
good relationship with Remilekun, his youngest
daughter.


It is only Yemisi that he does not have a good
relationship with because she’s full of bitterness and
hatred and envy. There is no way he would have a
good relationship with her children because they have
no respect for him, they have never honoured him;
they wanted him to go to jail.

The only recognition they have before high society is
the fact that she is Femi Fani-Kayode’s ex-wife.
The only reason why people recognise Yemisi’s girls is
because Fani-Kayode is attached to them.

As far as we are concerned in the Fani-Kayode
family, Femi has two children, Folake and
Remilekun. The family does not recognize those other
three. We don’t wish them ill; we have no hatred for
them. They are not just part of us. So, nobody
should be surprised that we didn’t go to the wedding.
And there is no question of reconciling with supposed
daughters that have no respect for their father, that
have no love for their father and have done nothing
but run their father down everywhere.

In fact, there was a time Femi begged them to
change their name from Fani-Kayode because in our
culture, what they are doing is shameful. You do not
side with one parent against the other, and you do
not expect a man, a father, to take rubbish from a
child. Their mother is so embittered, so full of hate
and malice. They have chosen to go that way and we
have chosen to ignore them and not to go on a war
path with them or start talking about them because
we have class and they do not.

So, Femi does not hate his children. He is just
indifferent to the ones borne by Yemisi. He has no
fatherly feeling for those children except for Folake
and Remilekun. The lies that he is an absentee father
that never takes care of his children could only have
come out from a hateful, venomous and malicious
heart. Anyone can ask Folake’s mother, anyone can
ask Remilekun’s mother, Femi takes good care of his
children.

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