The Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs in a hearty conversation with his son Chief Dumo at his 88th birthday anniversary
The controversy over the death of Nigerian oil and business magnate, Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, in Ghana continues to generate a lot of interests.
Children of the deceased are in a fierce ‘fight’ with their stepmother, Seinye Lulu-Briggs, over the ownership of the body of the late chief which has been conveyed to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra for autopsy.
In an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE over the weekend, Chief Dumo O.B. Lulu-Briggs, Senibo O.B. Lulu-Briggs and Sofiri O.B. Lulu-Briggs (the oldest children of the deceased) took turns to narrate what they called “the strange circumstance” under which their father died.
Reports were that the chief died on board a chartered flight from Nigeria to Ghana, but the children are claiming that their father died in Nigeria in December 2018 and was literally ‘smuggled’ to Accra by their stepmother on the blindside of the Ghanaian authorities.
Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chief of the Lulu-Briggs family of the Abonema, Port Harcourt in the Rivers State of Nigeria and Chief mourner, who spoke on behalf of his two brothers, said the family saw their father the day before his trip to Accra and were not told that their stepmother had planned to bring their ailing father to Ghana on a purported vacation.
They claimed they later discovered that their father, in spite of being sick, was locked up in an aircraft together with some other persons, for more than 5 hours at the Port Harcourt International Airport, under the pretext of waiting for a landing permit to travel to Accra.
“We have information that there was indeed a Landing Permit duly issued with an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) at 1pm, Ghana time, on the 27th of December, 2018,” he said.
The children’s concern is that their stepmother travelled with their deceased father to Accra without ‘medical clearance’ and claimed she failed to report the matter to the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana airport authorities, or the police for a Coroners’ Inquest to be conducted as required by the laws of Ghana, considering that her husband died outside a medical facility.
He said the stepmother should be investigated to determine how she was able to procure a medical cause of death certificate to enable her convey the body to Transitions Funeral Home at Haatso in Accra.
Police involvement
He said the issues surrounding the death of their father caused them to report the matter to some personnel of Nigeria Police Force who are working on the case.
The Nigerian Police Force, through Interpol, then came to Ghana to seek the assistance of the Ghana Police Service and CID to investigate the death of their father.
Since then, there has been a flurry of finger pointing amid court injunctions among the factions (children and stepmother) in the case, as each tries to claim ownership of the deceased chief.
There also appears to be confusion in the manner the autopsy should be done.
The police authorities at the funeral home at Haatso, as well as the children and stepmother, have been meeting to find an amicable solution to the matter.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu