HOSA OKUNBOR: How Edo Billionaire Died Days To Opening Of Banana Island Mansion, Coronation Of Daughter's Hubby As Olu Of Warri

This past weekend could have been one of the most-memorable in the life of Capt. Hosa Okunbor, the Billionaire Edo-born businessman and one of Nigeria's most-influential economic barons. But it was never to be, when he passed on in London on August 7 following complications from pancreatic cancer. His death, at 66 sent strong shockwaves across the Nigeria business circles, as well as among his kinsmen, who saw him as a messiah. More saddening however, are the immediate plans the late astute businessman had set out to achieve, until death came suddenly, just days before those big dates he was looking forward to.

Over the weekend, if he were to be alive, Captain Okunbor would have thrown one of the biggest house-warming parties ever in Nigeria for the opening of his multi-billion Naira palatial mansion, inside Banana Island in Lagos. He would have also been a very special guest of honor (and a fulifiled man) at the crowning of the new Olu of Warri, Prince Tsola Emiko in Delta state. Late Captain Okunbor's daughter, Ivie is the wife (Queen) of the New Warri King.

The late business mogul, we gathered, was one of the big backbones that supported Prince Tsola's aspiration to the throne of his father. Captain Hosa was a big financier of his ambition. He was already preparing big for the big day of coronation of his son-in-law, but as fate would have it, he was never going to there.

Late Capt Okunbor, the late Olu of Warri with their children during their wedding in 2014.

Memories of the wedding in 2014 are still fresh in the minds those who knew about it. The city of Benin stood still on the day the family of the then Olu of Warri visited to ask for Captain Okubor’s daughter, Ivie in marriage. No fewer than 20 private jets landed in Benin for the traditional wedding ceremony between Ivie Okunbor and Tsola Emiko, then son of the former Olu of Warri, who is being crowned as the newest Olu of Warri this weekend. It was a day that wealth was on its most visible display.

The then Prince Tsola Emiko and Ivie Okunbor at their wedding in 2014.

Videos of the palatial late Captain Okunbor's mansion at Banana Island, Ikoyi in Lagos, which opening was to immediately follow the Olu of Warri's coronation, have been circulatiing on social media.

The jaw-dropping edifice is a heaven of sorts. The palatial garden, lounges and swimming pool are all on the rooftop of the mansion. Unfortunately, the man who had spent so much to see it come to reality will not be spending a night inside it.