For more than three decades, a bitter family disagreement has kept billionaire industrialist and Eleganza Group founder, Chief Razaq Okoya, and one of his sons, Fatai, apart, a rupture that has now burst into public view after the 66-year-old son made an emotional appeal for forgiveness and reconciliation.
Fatai says he wants no money or inheritance from his father. What he wants, he says, is the restoration of a relationship he once enjoyed as a child.
But the story has also exposed a much more complicated history surrounding Okoya’s marriages, his large family and the succession of his business empire. At the centre of the latest controversy is a fundamental disagreement over Fatai’s place in the family.
While Fatai has repeatedly described himself as Okoya’s first child and first son, the Okoya family, in a statement issued by Nathaniel Omeninwan, Senior Public Relations Manager of Eleganza Industries Limited, strongly disputed that description, saying Fatai is actually the industrialist’s third child.
The family also rejected Fatai’s suggestion that his estrangement from his father was caused by Shade Okoya.
According to the family, Fatai’s relationship with his father had already deteriorated and he had stopped visiting Okoya long before Shade became his wife.
How the rift started
Fatai in a video interview anchored by YeyeKudi on Tiktok provided the clearest explanation yet of what he believes triggered the family crisis.
According to him, he and his father were very close when he was growing up. But as a young man, he took what he described as a relatively small amount of money from his father’s business.
Fatai said he was young and reckless at the time and did not believe the amount was large enough to destroy his relationship with his father for decades.
He explained that another major point of disagreement was his decision to marry a woman his father did not approve of.
Fatai said he was young and in love and proceeded with the marriage despite his father’s objection.
Those two issues, according to Fatai, became part of the foundation of the decades-long disagreement.
“I did not embezzle much money, if it was much, I would have built house and bought planes and cars,” he said.
He has also repeatedly insisted that he tried to repair the relationship.
“I have tried to make peace for 40 years,” Fatai said in his appeal.
But the Okoya family presents a different picture.
The family said four influential friends intervened in the dispute more than four decades ago and that, following an overnight meeting, Okoya agreed to settle whatever Fatai was requesting at the time.
It further said Fatai had not been abandoned financially, claiming that he had received substantial assistance from his father over the years, including four flats in Ogunlana, Surulere, Lagos, as well as payments towards medical bills.
Who is Fatai’s mother?
This is one area where the public record is considerably less clear than the claims surrounding the feud.
Reports on the Okoya family identify Alhaja Kuburat Olayinka Okoya as Razaq Okoya’s first wife and say she had seven children with him. THISDAY, in a profile of the family, similarly reported that Kuburat was Okoya’s first wife and the mother of seven of his children.
However, Fatai himself has publicly said only that he was the only child his mother had with Razaq Okoya. He did not name his mother in the recent account, and available reporting has not independently established that his mother was Kuburat.
That distinction is important because the Okoya family says Fatai is the industrialist’s third child, while Fatai identifies himself as the first child.
So, although Kuburat is publicly documented as Okoya’s first wife and mother of seven of his children, it would be unsafe to state categorically, without further documentary confirmation, that she was Fatai’s mother.
What is clear is that Fatai regards himself as the only child born to his own mother by Okoya.
The grandmother who tried to save the relationship
Fatai's account also reveals that the family crisis was not simply a disagreement between two men.
He recalled the intervention of his grandmother, whom he described as an emotional pillar during the difficult years.
According to him, she was deeply unhappy about the breakdown between father and son and cautioned Okoya about the consequences of allowing the disagreement to continue.
Fatai recalled her asking his father what would happen to his other children if he could allow a misunderstanding with one son to persist.
“She was not happy with the way things were going,” Fatai said, recalling his grandmother’s intervention.
He said she nevertheless remained affectionate towards him and continued to acknowledge him as her first child, even when the wider family relationship had deteriorated.
Where Shade Okoya enters the story
Shade Okoya entered Razaq Okoya’s life years after the original family disagreement involving Fatai.
This is significant because the Okoya family has specifically rejected the suggestion that Shade was responsible for the beginning of the estrangement.
Okoya’s marital history itself has been complicated.
His first wife was Kuburat, who reportedly bore him seven children. He later married Ajoke, but that marriage collapsed in 2001 following what was described as irreconcilable differences.
The breakdown reportedly became particularly contentious after Ajoke left their Ikoyi residence. A controversy also followed over the paternity of their youngest child, Rasheed, although a DNA test conducted in London subsequently established that Okoya was indeed the father. Against that complicated marital background came Shade.
How Okoya met Shade
Shade has previously recounted how her relationship with the much older businessman began. She said their first meeting was strictly work-related. But Okoya, she recalled, was immediately interested in seeing her again. When they met for the second time, he did not engage in a prolonged courtship.
Instead, he told her directly that he wanted to marry her.
“When I met my husband, it was not a typical kind of meeting. I met him for a different purpose entirely, it was more work related,” Shade recalled. She said she initially found his proposal too sudden because she was not expecting marriage from the encounter.
According to her, Okoya was, however, looking for a wife and did not want to waste time.
Shade was about 21 when she met Okoya, while the businessman was 59. They eventually married in May 1999.
The union produced four children namely; Olamide, Subomi, Oyinlola and Wahab.
The woman who became the centre of the dynasty
Shade's arrival into the Okoya family did not come without challenges.
A 2024 THISDAY profile described the period surrounding her marriage as one marked by family rivalry and emotional tensions, although much of the account was based on long-standing reports rather than statements from every person involved.
Over the years, however, Shade became one of the most prominent figures in the Eleganza empire, eventually taking a major management role in the business.
Her marriage to Okoya has lasted more than 25 years, despite the enormous age difference between them.
And while the couple have projected an image of stability, the latest Fatai controversy has reopened questions about the unresolved tensions among Okoya’s older and younger children.
Fatai’s Daughter Joins the Plea
The appeal for reconciliation has now taken on a generational dimension, with one of Fatai’s daughters publicly joining her father’s plea to Okoya.
The 40-year-old daughter appealed to her grandfather to forgive her father, saying the prolonged estrangement had caused years of pain for their family.
According to her, the consequences of the dispute have extended to Fatai’s children, who she said have grown up without becoming familiar with other branches of the Okoya family.
She lamented that her father’s estrangement had effectively prevented them from developing relationships with relatives to whom they are connected by blood.
For her, the issue is no longer simply about the original disagreement between her father and grandfather. It is also about the years of family relationships that have been lost and the opportunity for the younger generation to know their extended family.
The daughter also said the woman whose marriage to Fatai reportedly contributed to the disagreement with Okoya had died in 1993.
Her account suggests that the original marital disagreement has continued to cast a shadow over the family long after the death of the woman at the centre of it.
The claim about the woman’s death and her role in the dispute forms part of the daughter’s account and has not been independently established in the available reporting.
The daughter was emphatic that the family’s appeal was not about money, property or inheritance.
She said what they wanted was peace, reconciliation and a sense of belonging within the Okoya family.
According to her, the public appeal should not be interpreted as an attempt by Fatai to claim a share of his father’s wealth. Rather, she said, the family wants an opportunity to rebuild relationships that have been absent for decades.
She maintained that the emotional consequences of the estrangement have weighed heavily on her father and his children, who now want the matter resolved while their grandfather is still alive.
Her plea was that Okoya should look beyond the disagreements of the past and give his son and grandchildren an opportunity to reconnect with the wider family.
The daughter’s intervention has therefore shifted attention from the question of what Fatai might gain financially from reconciliation to what he and his children believe they have lost emotionally.
The daughter also disclosed that she had personally attempted to intervene in the dispute by approaching her grandfather.
According to her account, she appealed to Okoya to forgive her father and allow the family to reconcile. However, she said the encounter ended in embarrassment, with her grandfather allegedly refusing to listen to her plea and yelling at her.
The experience, she indicated, was painful and discouraging because she had hoped that a direct appeal from his granddaughter might help soften his position.
She said the unsuccessful encounter contributed to the decision to make the family’s plea public.
According to her, the public appeal was not intended to embarrass Okoya but to draw attention to a situation that previous efforts to resolve privately had failed to change.
Her account presents a troubling picture of a family in which, she says, even attempts by the younger generation to establish contact have not produced the desired outcome.
Okoya’s own account of the encounter was not available in the reports reviewed, and her allegations could not be independently verified.
For Fatai’s daughter, the most painful consequence of the estrangement is the loss of a relationship with the wider family.
She said she and her siblings should have had the opportunity to know their grandfather and other relatives as they grew up, rather than remaining distant from them because of a disagreement involving their father.
Her plea is that the children and grandchildren should not continue to bear the consequences of a dispute they did not initiate.
She wants Okoya to recognise that reconciliation would mean more than settling an old disagreement. It would give a new generation the opportunity to build family relationships that, according to her, have been missing for much of their lives.
The daughter’s appeal also raises a broader question about the consequences of prolonged family estrangement: when a disagreement between parents continues for decades, how much of that division is inherited by their children?
For her, the answer is visible in the distance between Fatai’s children and the rest of the Okoya family.
The birthday confrontation
The latest chapter in the Fatai-Okoya saga came on January 12, 2026, when Okoya celebrated his 86th birthday.
Fatai said he attended the celebration as an invited guest and was initially warmly received.
He said his aunt, Wosilat, helped him find his seat and assured him that his father had been informed of his presence.
Fatai said he wanted to use the occasion to finally reconcile with his father.
But, according to him, when he tried to approach Okoya, he was stopped.
He specifically alleged that Shade prevented him from going to his father.
“So when my father was coming, there were bodyguards everywhere. But I waited for him to go upstage before I went to try and greet him. But when I tried to go to the stage, I was turned back by his wife, Alhaja Shade Okoya,” Fatai alleged.
He claimed his father saw him but did not intervene.
The family, however, has given an entirely different account.
It said Shade and Fatai exchanged pleasantries during the medical outreach organised for Okoya’s birthday.
According to the family, another relative advised Fatai that the occasion was not an appropriate time to discuss the longstanding disagreement with his father.
The family said Fatai accepted the advice and left.
It specifically denied that Shade stopped him from seeing Okoya.
Okoya’s position on his children
Perhaps the most revealing part of the controversy is not what has been said about Fatai, but what Okoya has previously said about his approach to his older and younger children.
The billionaire has spoken about ensuring that his younger children are properly prepared to take over the family business and avoid what he described as the mistakes of some of their older siblings.
He has said the younger generation must learn the business early, acquire practical experience and develop the discipline required to protect the future of Eleganza.
In reports of his succession plans, Okoya made clear that he wants his younger children to be deeply involved in the business rather than simply inherit wealth.
The message was stark: he does not want the younger children to repeat the mistakes he believes some of their older siblings made.
That position has inevitably added another layer to the Fatai controversy.
It raises questions about whether the billionaire's current approach to succession is partly shaped by the painful experiences of his earlier family relationships.
A dynasty of 26 children
The sheer size of the Okoya family makes the dispute even more complex.
In February 2026, Raheem Okoya, one of the industrialist’s children, said his father has 26 children with nine women, describing himself as the 23rd child. He said the oldest child was around 60 years old.
That means Okoya’s children span several generations, with enormous differences in age, upbringing and family experience.
It also explains why the Fatai dispute cannot simply be viewed as an isolated father-and-son disagreement.
It is part of a much larger family structure built over decades, involving several mothers, multiple marriages, older children, younger children and a business empire worth protecting.
What really happened?
The answer remains contested.
Fatai says a youthful mistake involving money, followed by his marriage against his father’s wishes, contributed to the collapse of their relationship. He says he subsequently spent decades trying to repair the damage and believes access to his father was repeatedly blocked.
The Okoya family says the relationship broke down long before Shade became Okoya’s wife and insists Fatai has received considerable financial assistance from his father despite the estrangement.
Fatai says Shade stopped him from approaching his father at the 86th birthday celebration.
The family says she merely exchanged pleasantries with him and that another relative advised him not to raise the old dispute at the event.
Fatai says his father recognised him but remained silent.
The family says the disagreement should be handled privately rather than through social media.
And perhaps most importantly, Razaq Okoya himself has yet to publicly give a detailed account of what happened between him and Fatai. For now, the son is asking his father for forgiveness and another chance.
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