A lot has been said and written already about colorful billionaire and blessed businessman, Amb. Antonio Dehinde Fernandez – who died on Tuesday, September 1, 2015, in Brussels, Belgium, aged 79, and following a battle with ill-health. However, there is an aspect of him that is only known to a few – Fernandez is a warrior! And ever ready to take on any one, no matter how close and including family members.
Two examples would suffice: After the collapse of his relationship with the delectable dresser and Erelu of Lagos, Ms. Abiola Dosumu (who bore him a daughter, Oyikansola), the man went to court and spent good money just to get her to drop Fernandez from her name. It even became a fierce media war at some point, hugging the front covers of some papers, with some close friends intervening.
Again, when his daughter, Mrs. Teju Phillips, then a Commissioner under ex-Governor Bola Tinubu, granted an interview to Encomium Weekly and used some adjectives which he didn’t like to qualify him, he was so upset that he insisted that the woman must carry an advert in the papers to retract that – which she did. And afterwards almost refrained completely from talking about her super rich father. YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine, as a matter of fact, never heard her say anything about her father again until recently following his demise.