One of the most devastating tragedies to hit Nigeria’s financial sector in recent years was the death of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe. Since the fatal helicopter crash that claimed his life, that of his wife, Doreen, and others, the Wigwe family has remained the subject of public interest, with fresh developments continuing to emerge from different corners of their lives and legacy.
Society Watch recently gathered that Otutochi Wigwe, daughter of the late banking titan, has approached the High Court of Justice of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to secure control of a company that owns her late parents’ luxury yacht, Chitochi. The proceedings have brought the complexities of offshore corporate ownership into the delicate business of preserving and administering a family inheritance.
The yacht is reportedly the sole remaining asset of Grosvenor Marine Ventures Ltd., a BVI-registered company jointly owned by Herbert and Doreen Wigwe, who also served as its directors.
According to the report, the company was struck off the BVI Register of Companies and dissolved on November 5, 2024, following the non-payment of its annual fees.
The application, brought by Otutochi alongside Uchechukwu Wigwe, described in the filings as an intended administrator and cousin-in-law of the deceased couple, seeks authority to preserve the company’s shares and pave the way for the eventual sale of the yacht.
Court filings reportedly described Chitochi as a depreciating asset requiring considerable expenditure on maintenance and insurance, with the potential for further financial losses if its sale is delayed. A 2016 Custom Line 108, the 33-metre yacht is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where American yacht brokers have reportedly listed it for sale. Its eventual fate now depends, in part, on the legal steps required to regularise the status of the company that owns it.
Court documents state that both spouses were domiciled in Nigeria at the time of their deaths and jointly held all the issued shares in Grosvenor Marine Ventures Ltd., which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on March 7, 2012.
For now, Chitochi represents an unusual chapter in the continuing story of the Wigwe family. Once a symbol of the privileges and pleasures associated with extraordinary wealth, the yacht has become entangled in the less glamorous realities of inheritance, offshore company restoration and asset preservation.