To the matter....

I need legal & other advice on how to handle a situation that's causing me a lot of mental stress. I loaned 280,000 Naira to my cousin's husband around January for his business. There was no written agreement (I blame myself for this) because I felt it would be awkward to ask a family member to sign papers before I help him. Although I have other proofs like recorded calls and conversations where I asked for my money and he kept on begging for more time. The agreement we had was for him to payback by March. I had plans to purchase a fairly used Keke-napep with this 280k (plus some money I had reserved in my account).

When it was time to pay, I called him a lot to ask for my money. Sometimes, he'll pick and beg for more time. Sometimes, he'll pick and just leave me saying "hello hello hello" without a word from him. Most of the time he won't even pick my calls. He once asked me to send my account number but he didn't send anything (I felt like a joke). This went on from March, April & May. During this period, I had spent, on feeding & other bills, all the money I was supposed to add to the 280k in order to purchase the Keke-napep. This Keke-napep would have generated money for this bills if I had bought it then.

I've been staying at his place since beginning on this month because I don't have any money to fend for myself. When I came here, he told me that his customers promise to send the money before 15th of this month but they didn't. Now he said they promise to send it by the end of this month. All these while I have been patient and tolerant with everything, including the treatment I've been receiving since I came here (I don't even want to go into these treatments). I've been staying indoor since I came here because I don't know anywhere in this area. Just sitting one place and waiting for time to run makes me think about a lot of things and it's depressing.

I can't take this anymore. Even if I have a soft spot for family members, I also need to think of myself by taking necessary measures to get my money back before they ruin my plan of purchasing something that will help me survive daily. I need advice, please

There's this mild drama currently going on in the family. My uncle died late last year (at an old age). The problem here is that they some delay in child birth, (7 years after their wedding to be precise) so during this long wait, he and the wife decided to adopt a male child.

7 years after his adoption, children started popping in. They had a set of twins (males) and then 2 boys and a girl making it 5 biological children.

This my uncle was a wealthy man, so he had properties in the town of their state of origin and in the village.

Upon his death last year, the eldest son (the one who was adopted) sealed off the property in their village and claimed ownership of the 3 rental buildings in the town. This angered my uncle's brothers who were of the opinion that he's not family and therefore has no right to do such when the man's biological kids are very much around.

So they (the uncles) had a meeting with the biological sons of their late brother to get rid of what they termed an outcast in their midst.

They later invited the adopted young man to the village and used the community youths to beat him up and threatened to kill him if he doesn't stay away from their family properties. That he should look for his own biological parents and inherit whatever they left for him.

Now this didn't go down well, cos he used the police to lock up one of the twins and the whole family members are threatening fire and brimstone if the young man isn't released. They took the matter to the community elders who of course supported them by saying the adopted man has no right of forceful claim to any property unless it's given to him willingly by the family members.

As of now they have destroyed his wife's business in one of the buildings, burnt his car and have vowed to even kill him if he doesn't release their son.

That's why I brought it here. Was the adopted son wrong to have claimed ownership of his late father's properties without the official nod of the family members?

Do adopted children have right of inheritance in the family they find themselves?

What's your opinion on this matter.

Modified: I forgot to add that my uncle hasn't been buried because of this matter. His body is still in the mortuary cos there have to be an agreement from the family before burial takes place, and since the family is in chaos, the burial cannot hold for now. Leave your comments here in the comment section...

Thanks.