Society Gists

Controversial drug baroness, Alhaja Monsurat Ashabi Oloruntoyin Oyemade Rufai Abraham aka Toyin Igbira, is dead.

She died on Saturday, 20 July, at a private hospital in Surulere, Lagos, after a prolong battle with uterus cancer. She was aged 56.

It was gathered that Toyin Igbira was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.

Her search for cure saw her frequenting the United States and the United Kingdom, where she sought for the best treatment the medical profession could offer.

The wealthy socialite, who earned notoriety as a major drug trafficker with arrest and prosecution in the 90s – with another arrest in 2002 – reportedly invested over N200million in medical bills.

As her friends and loved ones continue to mourn her and prepare for her burial, they are determined to carry out her last wishes to the latter.

One of such wishes is to retrieve the N10 million Toyin Igbira loaned her former fiancé, Otunba Adegboyega Babatunde Adesoye, the current husband of Shade Alesh Adesoye, the popular society woman and businesswoman.

First Weekly Magazine gathered that Toyin Igbira and Adesoye were married, and their marriage was well known in the society.

It was gathered that the couple was even planning to celebrate their marriage ceremony with a big society party, and had even booked Adebola House on Opebi Road in Ikeja for the ceremony.

Unfortunately, the marriage came to an abrupt end and the couple went their separate ways.

The circumstances that led to their break-up was quite messy.

Toyin Igbira was reported to have complained to her friends that Adesoye was a gigolo, and that he had a voracious appetite for money and materialism.

And since he had nothing to show for his phantom business activities, she found herself funding his expensive lifestyle such as buying cars, jewelry and going on overseas trips.

Aside buying him the latest models Range Rover automobile, Toyin Igbira was also alleged to have loaned Adesoye money on a frequent basis.

However, the N10million in contention was described as a debt, which Toyin Igbira was committed to collecting from her former husband.

According to sources, the drug baroness made several attempts to get Adesoye to pay her the debt all to no avail.

Sources stated that all her efforts turned out to be fruitless. It was when she realized that her former lover had no intention of settling his debt that Toyin Igbira vowed to collect the N10million, if not in this lifetime, then in the life thereafter.

She was reported to have instructed her loved ones to make effort in forcing Adesoye to cough out her money after she might have gone.

Some close watchers are however, hopeful that Adesoye would honour his former wife in death and pay his debt to her three children.