It seems the hitherto raging war in the family of the Rivers
State-born late billionaire, Benson Lulu-Briggs, founder of Muni Polu Foundation, is finally
coming to the end, as his body has been finally released and brought to
Nigeria, 15 months after he passed on in controversial circumstance in Accra,
Ghana.
Following his death, one of his sons, Dumo Lulu Briggs and
the wife of the deceased, Seinye Lulu-Briggs, had been at each other jugular.
Recall, that after the Supreme Court of Ghana on February
11, 2020 dismissed the application of Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs to stop the
release of the mortal remains of her husband to the family led by Chief Dumo
Lulu-Briggs, Seinye on the same day filed another matter at the High Court for
orders of injunction against the removal of the body until her case against the
Coroner’s order for an inquest was determined.
Also on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the High Court declined
to grant Seinye’s request to restrain the family led by Dumo from taking possession of the mortal
remains of her husband. This ruling enabled Dumo to
immediately take custody of the body of his father to the utter chagrin of Mrs.
Seinye Lulu-Briggs before she could serve the mortuary with papers of her
appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Not done, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs in anticipation of the
unfavorable ruling by the High Court on her application against the orders of
the Coroner for an inquest, instituted another suit on February 25, 2020
against the Attorney General of Ghana to cancel the “Export Permit”
granted Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs to convey his father’s corpse from Ghana to
Nigeria.
Since February 25 and
27, 2020 when the High Court dismissed Seinye’s applications to restrain
the family from taking custody of the body and quash the orders of the Coroner
for an inquest, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs had waited on possible actions from the
Attorney General of Ghana in response to Seinye’s suit.
However, the good
news according to our source is that the
body has finally arrived Nigeria, and a meeting is on-going to agree on a date
for the burial of the patriarch who died at the age of 88.
And the family has finally agreed to bury their hatchets and sheathe their swords after intervention of well-meaning Nigerians.
Usually when great men die at a very ripe age in Kalabari
Kingdom in Rivers State, there is jubilation and the family gather to plan a
befitting burial for the departed.
But quite surprisingly, since December 2018 when he passed
on in Ghana, everything that has either been written or said about him has
continued to generate mixed reactions from members of the public.
In view of this, many had
expected that the family would
have accepted the grim reality of the passing of the late businessman and
philanthropist and accorded him the respect deserving of a man of his stature
by giving him a benefitting burial.
But many were shocked over the dust raised by his death
peaceful rest after his death.
It all started after an advertorial was published on May 23,
2019, where the Oruwari Briggs House Of Abonnema, among other disquieting
claims, said: ” We do not know if
High Chief O.B Lulu Briggs is dead or alive”.
In the said advertorial, it was said that since his wife,
Seinye, travelled with him to Ghana months ago, they had neither set their eyes
on him.
So, they pooh-poohed the reports of his death. To them,
there is no concrete proof that the patriarch of the Lulu family is truly dead!
The sponsors of the advertorial, unapologetically, also
premised their claim on the fact that the rumours of his death amount to a violation
of the Kalabari culture and tradition.
But this was countered by the woman who alleged that the
elders were only being economical with the truth.
