₦airaland Forum

FOOD POISONING: O. B LULU-BRIGGS HEALTH CENTER SAVES 106 STUDENTS

The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Health Center at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State on Wednesday 20 November 2019 saved the lives of 106 Students affected by food poisoning.

The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Health Center, which was built and donated to the University of Port Harcourt by the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation through the gracious benevolence of its grand benefactor, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, was the saving grace of the students of the University of Port Harcourt Demonstration Secondary School (UDSS).

Reports by the medical staff on ground at the health center indicated that students of UDSS who were rushed in with complaints of stomach-aches on the suspicion of food poisoning, some of whom were brought in unconscious, were attended to immediately. No casualty was recorded on account of the emergency medical care administered by the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Health Center.

Parents of affected students at the University of Port Harcourt Demonstration Secondary School have continued to express gratitude to God and the medical staff of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Health Center for their timely intervention. The source of the food poisoning is being investigated.

The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation is chaired by Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs, the wife of celebrated nationalist and philanthropist, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs who passed on in December 2018. The foundation has for nearly two decades been committed to providing quality humanitarian services, capacity building trainings and assisting the elderly, the infirm and needy who dwell mainly in the rural areas of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

https://firstpost.ng/food-poisoning-o-b-lulu-briggs-health-center-saves-106-students/

O. B. LULU-BRIGGS: THE REAL REASONS DUMO WANTS ANOTHER AUTOPSY ON HIS FATHER

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of Platform Petroleum and the second son of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs has loudly disapproved of the High Court-ordered autopsy done on his father at the 37 Military Hospital, Accra, Ghana on Friday 19th July 2019.

He is unhappy that the pathologist did not give out samples of his father’s body parts after the autopsy. However, that is a convenient excuse because a week earlier, on 12th July 2019, he had failed to obtain custody of his father’s body to have the same autopsy performed on his own terms, without the involvement and representation of his stepmother and four of his six siblings.

The need for an autopsy on the remains of the revered octogenarian was deviously instigated by the 10th April 2019 petition, which Dumo’s lawyers made to Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) on his behalf and with the support of two of his brothers, Senibo and Sofiri. The petition falsely claims that his stepmother murdered his father in broad daylight on an 80-minute flight from Port Harcourt to Accra, Ghana on board a full flight of 15 passengers and crew!

At a meeting with her and his pastor in March 2019, three months after his father’s passing, Dumo had threatened to accuse her of murdering his father because she refused to accede to his demand for what he considered his father’s choice assets (Moni Pulo Limited, O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Rachael Hotel and his Port Harcourt residence). Since then he has unleashed a vicious attack on her.

Chief Dumo had arranged for his father’s autopsy to be carried out on the 12th of July 2019 via an ex parte order, which he secured from the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court in Accra, Ghana. Strangely, on the appointed day, perhaps due to the rush to clandestinely secure the order, it was riddled with errors and had to be amended by the Magistrate, Mrs E.K. Barnes-Botchway, three times resulting in the postponement of the autopsy to the following Monday. Apparently, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs personally facilitated the amendments.

By the grace of God Almighty, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs got wind of the secret moves and on the same day she instructed her lawyers to approach the High Court of Ghana asking it to set aside the Magistrate Court order. She did not go to court to stop the autopsy as is being widely alleged by Dumo and his acolytes. Rather, she went to court to ensure the autopsy procedure was proper and fair to all parties involved.

The following Monday a meeting of all stakeholders was convened by the Ghanaian Police Criminal Investigations Department. All the stakeholders agreed on the process and terms of the autopsy at the meeting. In the course of the week the same terms were incorporated into a High Court order, which governed the 19th July 2019 autopsy.

THE CREDIBILITY OF THE AUTOPSY PROCESS

The autopsy was duly carried out at the 37 Military Hospital Accra, Ghana. Col. (Dr.) Seth Attoh, Head of Pathology Division at the 37 Military Hospital, conducted it, with the assistance of Dr. Lawrence Edusie, a Specialist Pathologist at the hospital.

Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs was represented at the autopsy by two Pathologists: Prof. Adetola Daramola, a Consultant Pathologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, who is also a Professor of Anatomic Pathology at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos and Dr. Emeka Nwafor, a Senior Consultant Pathologist at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital who is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Uyo.

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs was represented by Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, the current President of the Nigerian Medical Association and Professor Agyeman Akosa, a renowned Ghanaian pathologist.

Other observers at the autopsy included ACP Adaku Uche-Anya and ASP Justus Ogar, both of whom were formally introduced to the Ghanaian Police as representatives of Nigeria’s IGP.

None of those present during the autopsy has queried how the autopsy was done to this very day.

DUMO’S PROTEST: PERSONAL, NOT ENDORSED BY HIS REPRESENTATIVE PATHOLOGISTS

On Friday 19th July 2019, the very day that the autopsy was done, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ lawyers wrote a letter of protest to CP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghanaian Police. This is noteworthy because not a single query was raised by any of his representative pathologists during or after the autopsy. Furthermore, having worked so hard to instigate the autopsy, Chief Dumo chose not to be part of a pre-autopsy meeting that held at the 37 Military Hospital. Instead, he nominated his elder brother, Senibo, to attend for his side of the family. Why? We can only conclude that having lost control of the autopsy process, he also lost interest and wanted no part of the High Court-ordered autopsy involving representatives of Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs. Hence, his letter of protest even before the conclusion of the autopsy was aimed at rocking the boat.

As a result of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ letter of protest, CP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Director General of Ghana’s Criminal Investigations Department, convened a conference of all parties at the 37 Military Hospital on Monday 22nd July 2019, the very next working day after the autopsy was conducted. Brigadier General Ernest C. Saka, the Director General of Ghana’s Armed Forces Medical Service, chaired the meeting, in the company of three Colonels of the Ghanaian Army. Other attendees included; Col. (Dr.) Seth Attoh who conducted the autopsy, Representatives of Nigeria’s IGP, one pathologist representing Dumo and his brothers, one pathologist representing Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs and her other children, Mrs O. B. Lulu-Briggs and her lawyers, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and his lawyers, and AIG Akhiwu Wilson (Head of Medical Pathology, Nigerian Police).

During the meeting, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs registered his displeasure about his non-receipt of samples of his father’s body parts after the autopsy. Col. (Dr.) Attoh who presided over the autopsy informed him that it was unknown in the practice of pathology to distribute samples of body parts after an autopsy. Nevertheless, his request was accommodated, and he was asked if he was he prepared to receive the samples of the body parts at that material time. He declined saying he would rather obtain samples via another autopsy, which he demanded. The Ghanaian military chiefs present at the meeting could not hide their astonishment and disgust at his request for a second autopsy.

The meeting rose with the conclusion by all parties’ present, including Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ representative pathologists that the autopsy procedure was done correctly and according to the terms of the coroners’ instructions. Dumo’s personal grouse that he was not given samples of his father’s body parts is a convenient excuse to mask his real motives. If as agreed, especially by his pathologists, that the autopsy was properly done, why did Chief Dumo decline the offer to be given samples of his father’s body tissue? Why is he insisting on a second autopsy? What does Dumo need samples of his father’s body parts taken at a second autopsy for?

After the meeting the Ghanaian Police, which Dumo claimed was shut out of the autopsy procedure, formally responded to his letter of protest on 7th August 2019. They stated clearly that “The Autopsy was done according to the standard practice...” [See letter attached].

DUMO SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAY IN BURYING HIGH CHIEF O. B. LULU-BRIGGS

The claim by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs that his stepmother is holding the mortal remains of his father hostage and therefore delaying his funeral is completely false and misleading. On the contrary, the mortal remains of High Chief are ready for interment except that Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is not yet ready to bury his father and is purposely delaying the funeral.

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs has, among many things, said his stepmother’s pending litigations are delaying the burial of his father. We responded to this particular excuse through a statement titled, The Needless Delay of High Chief O. B. Lulu- Briggs’ Funeral, Dumo’s 13 Frivolous Lawsuits Against Stepmother, which showed clearly how Dumo, not his stepmother, has instituted a plethora of lawsuits aimed at delaying his father’s funeral. It is noteworthy that our conclusion that the lawsuits do not stop the burial of his father is apt and true.

No litigation is subsisting anywhere in the world that inhibits, prohibits or forbids the burial of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. The delay in the burial of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs must be attributed to Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ mischievous claim that his 88-year-old father died unnaturally. This resulted in his call for an autopsy, which has been done and attested to by his very pathologists. Incredulously, he has returned to the same Kaneshie District Magistrate Court, which ordered the first autopsy with a request for another autopsy to further delay his father’s burial. On the 6th September 2019 the same Magistrate, Mrs E.K. Barnes-Botchway, granted his second request and issued an order for an inquest to be carried out. This order has since been appealed against. Dumo has gleefully flaunted this information in the media.

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is delaying his father’s burial in order to use his father body as a bargaining chip with his stepmother to gain access to his father’s assets. His father’s Last Will and Testament clearly states that his three elder sons had received their inheritance from him during his lifetime.

After the meeting with his pastor and stepmother failed to yield the results Dumo expected, he amended his request and demanded that his stepmother give him 50% of Moni Pulo Limited. She stated that she would gift 50% of her shares in the company to all of her husband’s children and not just to him alone. Dumo declined.

His most recent proposal to his stepmother about how to divvy up his father’s estate is scandalous and will shock even the most rigid delinquent. If Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is truly proud of its content and is convinced that he has a rightful claim to all that he seeks for himself, he should be bold enough to make it as public as he makes the false and malicious claims against his stepmother.

WHAT IS DUMO’S ULTIMATE AGENDA?

In the meantime, is it not proper to probe if Dumo’s dispute with the autopsy conducted on his father’s earthly remains and his insistence and persistence on a second autopsy are not smokescreens intended to mislead the public while he makes further attempts to bring his stepmother to negotiate with him? Or is Dumo frantically scheming and searching for how to pin his father’s natural death on his stepmother through another devious plot, which requires him to have a ‘private’ autopsy of his own that he can manipulate? Or could it be nothing more than a further delay tactic meant to frustrate the burial of his father for reasons that will soon be made public?

DR. MRS. SEINYE LULU BRIGGS’ APPEAL

Despite attempts by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs to indict Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs for the death of her husband, she continues to appeal for a date to be fixed for the interment of her husband, their patriarch, by both Chief Dumo and the Chiefs of Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema. She continues to give assurances that High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs’ earthly remains are ready for burial. Dumo’s delay tactics and claims of her taking her husband’s body hostage are at best a misleading vilification of her person to promote mischief and achieve a completely selfish and wicked agenda which will not succeed by God’s grace.


Oraye St. Franklyn Esq.
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

https://firstpost.ng/o-b-lulu-briggs-the-real-reasons-dumo-wants-another-autopsy-on-his-father/?preview=true&_thumbnail_id=23163

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of Platform Petroleum, through his publicist and spokesman one Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo who sneakily operates on Facebook with the fake name Ijuye Telescopic put out another false statement on the 20th of November 2019 claiming that Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs lost, “her Prohibition Lawsuit at the Ghana Supreme Court alleging bias against a High Court Judge.” On account of the varied public interest and inquiries we have received on the issue from far and wide, it is important to set the records straight.

Nothing is further from the truth; victory had already been achieved. The said Judge having openly shown bias by categorically stating that, “She (Dr. Mrs. Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs) doesn’t seem to be interested in burying her husband,” was unable to give judgment on whether or not Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs should have custody of the body to carry out another autopsy on his father on September 6, 2019 even when the first autopsy was properly done as endorsed by his own representative pathologists.

Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs through her lawyers had approached Ghana’s Supreme Court to seek a declaration that on the basis of the disparaging comment made against her by the High Court Judge presiding over her case, which reasonably indicated bias, she (the judge) was incompetent to continue to preside over the case.

The said Judge was a vacation Judge at the time. Given that by the time the Supreme Court heard the matter, the case would no longer be presided over by a vacation Judge, but a substantive one, the application could not but be withdrawn. Incidentally, this is not the first time Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is employing this strategy of approaching vacation Judges to address matters that have no business in vacation Courts. From Nigeria to Ghana he has used this same strategy, without success.


Chief Dumo’s statement also states that, “Her (Mrs. O.B. Lulu-Briggs’) lawyers were lambasted by the justices of the Ghana Supreme Court for bringing a very frivolous application and wasting the time of the court and the family.”

There was no lampooning of any sort by the respected/respectable Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana, not even by the closest shade of a whimper. The earlier application to the Supreme Court was simply withdrawn. Indeed, if the Supreme Court was as vexed as falsely claimed by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, why did it not award costs against Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs if her application was truly frivolous?

There was also no loss of any prohibition lawsuit by Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs as dishonestly claimed by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, whose lawyers were not even in court on the said day. Otherwise, can he state the particular benefit it has brought to him? If she truly lost such a lawsuit as he claimed, what did he or anyone for that matter achieve or gain by her purported loss? Nothing. How then does his phantom ‘gain’ help his insincere and misleading claim of being desirous of burying his father? Huh?

Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs did not lose any lawsuit and by God’s grace will continue to triumph on the side of truth. In this particular case, God granted her desire to have a Substantive Judge to fully hear the matter.

However, the entire O.B. Lulu-Briggs family continues to lose by not laying the mortal remains of its beloved patriarch High Chief Dr. O.B. Lulu-Briggs to rest because of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs intransigence. Nothing is stopping him from getting on with the business of burying his father.

We appreciate the concern and sincerely thank all those who have reached out to us for their continued support and prayers as we work towards according her beloved husband, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, a dignified interment.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

Hi

Mm

O.B. LULU-BRIGGS: BENEFICIARIES CONDOLE WIDOW, CALL FOR BURIAL IN FOUR WEEKS

A group of legal professionals and beneficiaries of the benevolence of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs through the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation has called for the burial of their grand benefactor in four weeks. The group made the call when it embarked on a condolence and solidarity visit to his bereaved widow, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs and the O. B. Lulu-Briggs family at their Port Harcourt residence.

Dr. Miebaka Nabiebu, the Chief of Staff to Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs welcomed the group on her behalf. Leader of the group, Mr. Jonas Iniayemana said its visit was not necessarily to mourn but to extend its hands of solidarity to the family at these trying times in order to help honour and celebrate the colossal memory of their legendary Father and Grand Benefactor, whose uncommon philanthropy, nationalism, humanism and patriotism were instructive generational lessons for humanity.


Mr Iniayemana, who spoke glowingly of the sacrifices and devotion of Mrs Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs to her late husband said, “as children of Opuda, who through the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation received his unquantifiable milk of human kindness and the generosity of his spirit in greatly assisting us and so many others towards the attainment of our career aspirations despite not even knowing most of us nor having blood or ethnic affiliations with most of us, we are deeply saddened and find most worrisome, uncharitable and unacceptable the undue delay in laying the mortal remains of our father and grand benefactor to rest in mother earth,” he wailed. Decrying further that “it beggars belief that anybody can contrive to deprive rest to a man, who dried the tears, wiped the sweats and afforded rest to countless others. Therefore, we appeal to the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family and Oruwari Briggs House to within four weeks lay our Father to rest.


“As concerned beneficiaries of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, we are primarily here today to express our condolences and empathy to you the Matriarch of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family and the entire O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family on the demise of your darling Husband, our late Father and the Grand Benefactor of the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, High Chief Dr. Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs (Paramount Chief and Head of Oruwari-Briggs House of Abonnema) fondly called “Opuda”.

“We have watched over the years with sincere admiration, your rich display of personal sacrifice, love, care, devotion and commitment to the personal welfare, health and causes of your darling Husband, our late Father and Grand Benefactor, High Chief Dr. Olu Benson Lulu- Briggs (Paramount Chief and Head of Oruwari-Briggs House of Abonnema) during his lifetime, which undoubtedly births enduring noble lessons for womenfolk in marriage.”

Speaking further, he said “the personality and fatherhood of Opuda looms so large that today we can confidently say we are all children of Opuda, hence we are not oblivious of the fact that these are very trying times for our O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family.” He urged Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs and the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family to stay strong, courageous and trust completely in God, while affirming the solidarity of the group with her.

On behalf of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs family, Rachael Lulu-Briggs, daughter of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, thanked the group for its visit to the family and expressed joy at the personal successes of its members, just as it has been with other beneficiaries of her Father’s benevolence. She called on them to be relentless in making positive changes in society, which would continue to speak positively of their benefactor’s legacy and benevolence toward them.

On their part, representatives of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation Koru Okujagu and Ineba Tongkam also expressed gratitude to the group for its thoughtful visit. They said the visit was not only encouraging to the foundation but would also be to other beneficiaries who would be spurred to speak up at this time.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

NEEDLESS DELAY OF HIGH CHIEF O. B. LULU-BRIGGS’ FUNERAL

* Dumo’s 13 frivolous Lawsuits Against Stepmother.

“How can I be responsible for the delay? How do I bury my father when I don't have the body? If I decide now to bury my father and Seinye still has an action in court in Ghana, how do I do it?”’

– Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs,
as reproduced by his spokesman and Publicist Ijuye Dagogo and published on his Facebook post of October 24, 2019 at 1:13pm and across other media platforms.

Contrary to the widely circulated statements of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of Platform Petroleum and the 2nd son of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, that he, Dumo, is unable to proceed with the funeral rites of his late father on account of constraining litigations initiated by his stepmother, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs, he Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is personally responsible for instituting a plethora of legal actions.

As a matter of fact, no lawsuit exists anywhere in the world, whether from him or his stepmother that stops or is likely to stop the interment of his father High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. Not a single case out of the plethora of cases Dumo has filed nor the two lawsuits made in response to his by his stepmother impacts on the burial of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs.

Despite the fact that Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, a lawyer who ordinarily should not be engaged in forum shopping, has traversed multiple judicial jurisdictions beginning from Omoku in Rivers State, a judicial jurisdiction bearing no nexus with his claims, to Accra Ghana, Abuja and the Port Harcourt Judicial Division of the High Court of Rivers State in what can best be described as a transnational abuse of court processes and the misuse of the judicial system in a desperate bid to indict his stepmother for the passing of her husband, his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs even when he has all material facts that his father died a natural death, there’s still no legal prohibition from anyone anywhere in the world on the burial of his father even though he, Dumo, wants the public to believe otherwise.

Dumo had in a statement reproduced by his publicist, Ijuye Dagogo bragged about his lawyerly manipulative skills when he said,”I am a lawyer and if I were concerned about acquiring property, I would have done something regarding Moni Pulo, so that nobody gets revenue from the company, but I haven’t done any such thing.” Perhaps, this lawyerly manipulative skill in abuse of court processes is what he has activated against his stepmother, which sustains his plot to delay his father’s funeral.

As at today, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs has instituted a total of 13 suits since April 2019, all of which are against his stepmother without impacting on the funeral of his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, while his step mother, Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs, has responded to his 11 lawsuits with just 2 lawsuits in her defence and for her protection, which also do not impact on the burial of her husband. Yet, Dumo claims her suits are responsible for the delay of his father’s funeral, when indeed not a single lawsuit stops the burial of the celebrated patriarch, nationalist and philanthropist, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. The following are the 13 frivolous suits he has initiated since the passing of his father after failing to bully his stepmother into setting aside his father’s Last Will and Testament.

SUIT No. 1: OHC/20/2019, Rivers State High Court, Omoku Division via Ex Parte Application.

On the 9th of April 2019 along with 2 of his 4 brothers, he initiated a suit OHC/20/2019 at the Omoku Division of the Rivers State High Court against his stepmother, Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs and 6 others via an ex parte application. The aim of the suit was to stop the reading of the Last Will and Testament of his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, dated 2004, which according to his Father’s lawyers contained burial instructions by his father.

SUIT No. 2: OHC/7MISC/2019, Rivers State High Court, Omoku Division via Ex Parte Motion.

When he failed to achieve his purpose with the first suit, he instituted another suit OHC/7MISC/2019 again at the Omoku Division of the Rivers State High Court against the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Rivers State on the 15th of April 2019. The aim of the suit was to obtain an Order of Court allowing him to deposit another Will purportedly given to him by his father in 2003. This was in spite of his opposition to the reading of the Last Will and Testament of his father, which was deposited by his father’s lawyers, on the grounds that his father had not been buried.

SUIT No. 3: PHC/1309/2019, Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt Division via Ex Parte Application.

He however discontinued the Omoku suit on the 30th of April 2019 and instituted another suit PHC/1309/2019 at the Port Harcourt Division of the Rivers State High Court via another Ex parte application on the 15th of May 2019, yet again, against the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Rivers State and for the same purpose of obtaining an Order of Court allowing him to deposit a will purportedly given to him by his father in 2003, even though it contradicts his position that no will should be read before his father’s burial.

SUIT No. 4: Magistrate Court, FCT, Abuja. Banker’s Order arising from Petition to IGP

Based on a petition by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs to the Inspector General of Police on the 10th of April 2019 alleging fraud and financial Malpractice against Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs, the Force Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigeria Police on the 28th of May 2019 approached a Magistrate Court at the Abuja Judicial Division for an order to freeze the accounts of Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs. The order was obtained 2 days later on the 30th of May 2019 resulting in the freezing of her accounts on spurious, fathom and baseless accusations lacking the least modicum of credibility.

SUITS No. 5, 6 & 7: Coroner’s Court, Kaneshie District Magistrate Court, Accra, Ghana via Ex Parte Application

Dumo instituted the 5th, 6th and 7th lawsuits on the same day at the Coroner’s Court of the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court in Accra, Ghana. Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, following a petition on the 10th of July 2019 to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghanaian Police alleging the murder of his father by his stepmother, sought two Orders of Court, yet again via an ex parte application. The first was to privately conduct an autopsy on his father aimed at corroborating his allegation of murder and the second was for an order directing the Registrar of Births/ Death of the Republic of Ghana to privately release the mortal remains of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs to him purportedly for burial even when his request for an autopsy was yet to be carried out.

Strangely, due to the rush to clandestinely secure the orders, it was riddled with errors and had to be applied for and issued 3 times by the Magistrate within the same day, 12th of July 2019. Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs personally facilitated the said amendments in order to ensure the autopsy was done on the same day (12th of July 2019) that the order was made and without any notice given to his stepmother.

When by the grace of God Almighty, his stepmother, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs became aware of the secret moves to relocate the earthly remains of her husband to an unknown location for the purpose of conducting a private autopsy without her knowledge or involvement, given that she had been threatened by Dumo who had said before his pastor that he would accuse her of the killing of his father for refusing to accept his bid to set-aside the Last Will and Testament of his father, an ailing 88 year old man whom he knew died naturally, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs on the same day 12th of July 2019 IN RESPONSE TO DUMO’S LAWSUIT, had no option but to approach the High Court of Ghana asking it to set aside the Order of the Magistrate Court made based on an Ex Parte application by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and aimed at perpetrating mischief. She prayed the Court to ensure all parties were put on notice and for the court to hear the matters on the merits of the case. Her purpose for going to court was for it to determine the proper procedure for the autopsy given that Dumo was bent on fabricating indicting evidence against her. She did not go to court to stop the autopsy as is widely claimed by Dumo and his acolytes. Rather, she went to court to ensure the process was fair to all parties involved, which was eventually what was done.

Thankfully, the court heard the matter and determined the procedure for conducting the autopsy. The autopsy was done on the 19th of July 2019 in the presence of pathologists presented by both Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and his stepmother Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs. The preliminary report was clear. High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs did not die a violent death but of Cardiac Arrest. Dumo’s Pathologists, Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, the current President of the Nigerian Medical Association, who was flown to Ghana for the exercise, and the renowned Ghanaian pathologist Professor Agyeman Akosa observed the autopsy procedure and have not disputed its preliminary reports to this very day. Members of the Nigeria Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Abuja, investigating Dumo’s fake allegations against his stepmother were also present in Accra, Ghana for the post-mortem. They too have not disputed the preliminary reports. But, of course, a desperate Dumo was not satisfied.

SUIT No. 8: GJ/1600/2019, High Court of Ghana, Counter-Claim against Seinye Lulu-Briggs

Dumo, on the 13th of August 2019 made a counterclaim against Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs in her 12th of July suit wherein she prayed the court to put all parties on notice. In his counterclaim, Dumo is asking the court for a declaration that the mortal remains of High Chief (Dr.) O. B. Lulu-Briggs be handed to him (Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs) as head of the family, which again would afford him the opportunity, not necessarily to bury his father, but to carry on with his planned mischief of fabricating false evidence to indict his mother. So, Dumo’s claim that it was she who went to court and is responsible for the delay of her husband’s interment is untrue. Her suit was clear and did not impact on the burial of her husband. Even if she were to discontinue this lawsuit as he would wish, is he willing to withdraw his counter-claims to ensure his father is buried without further delay, given that his suit would still subsist even when she discontinues hers? These are some of the issues only him alone can address.

SUIT No. 9: Probate Registry of the Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt Division, Notice to Prohibit Grant

On the 26th of July, after the unnecessary autopsy Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs demanded to be done on his father had been done, he yet again, approached the courts with two matters. The first was to the Probate Registry of the Rivers State High Court to give Notice by way of Prohibition and Caveat to the Probate Registry that no Grant should be concluded with in relation to the Estate of his father High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs as contained in his Will dated 2004 and deposited with the Probate Registry by Order of the Rivers State High Court made on the 25th of March, 2019, which was read on the 26th of July, 2019.

SUIT No. 10: PHC/2520/2019, Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt Division via a Motion on Notice

The second lawsuit of the 26th of July 2019 was in partnership with 2 of his 4 brothers. It was to obtain an Order of Court restraining the Chief Registrar of the Rivers State High Court and the Probate Registrar from issuing a Letter of Probate with respect to the Last Will and Testament of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs dated 2004 and deposited with the Probate Registry by Order of the Rivers State High Court made on the 25th of March, 2019, which was read on the 26th of July, 2019.

All these suits were being filed mostly secretly in spite of Dumo’s public statements that he had no interest in the estate of his father and that his only wishes were either to find the cause of death of his father or to give his father a befitting burial depending on who he is speaking to at the material time. His wishes, according to him, could only come true when his stepmother vacates her lawsuits and hands over the mortal remains of his father to him. This is in spite of the fact that his stepmother did not have a single suit stopping or impacting on the burial of her husband. Besides, she has also always maintained that at any date of his choosing for burial, the earthly remains of her husband will be available for interment.

SUIT No. 11: Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt Division via an Ex parte Application

Not done, Dumo along with 2 of his 4 brothers, yet again, on the 16th of August 2019 via an ex parte application sought an order for substituted service on his Stepmother in the suit seeking to restrain the Chief Registrar of the Rivers State High Court and the Probate Registrar from issuing a Letter of Probate with respect to the Last Will and Testament of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs dated 2004 and deposited with the Probate Registry by Order of the Rivers State High Court made on the 25th of March, 2019, which was read on the 26th of July, 2019.

SUIT No. 12: PHC/2751/2019, Rivers State High Court, Port Harcourt Division via an Ex parte Application

On the 20th of August 2019, yet again via an ex parte application, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs approached the Port Harcourt Division of the High Court of Rivers State to obtain an Order of Interim Injunction restraining his stepmother, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs and 27 others from giving effect to the Letters of Probate granted on the 9th of August, 2019 with respect to the Last Will and Testament of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs dated 2004 and deposited with the Probate Registry by Order of the Rivers State High Court made on the 25th of March, 2019, which was read on the 26th of July, 2019.

SUIT No. 13: Coroner’s Court of the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court, Accra, Ghana via an Ex parte Application

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs on the 5th of September 2019 instituted his 13th suit, yet again, via an ex parte application, against his stepmother and yet again at a familiar ground, the Coroner’s Court of the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court, which has without fail granted him all his applications irrespective of their questionable imports and defective contents. This time he sought to obtain a Coroner’s Order for a second autopsy. Strangely, this same court ordered for the first autopsy to be conducted. Strangely, too, the same court acknowledging that the first autopsy had been done with its result still being awaited goes ahead to seek the violation of the first autopsy by ordering another one based on Dumo’s demands. Stranger than fiction was that this same court granted the order in clear violation of laid down procedures.

To this end, based on the fact that the intended mischief of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs in seeking to indict his stepmother for the passing of his father had become unmistakably vivid to the blind and audible to the deaf, Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs approached Ghana’s High Court of Justice for the second time and IN RESPONSE TO DUMO’S LAWSUIT with an application, via a Motion on Notice, rather than the nocturnal ex parte processes accustomed to Dumo. Her intention was to invoke the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court for Orders of Certiorari and Prohibition to be directed at the District Court Magistrate, Kaneshie District 2 with respect to the Order she granted for a second autopsy.

NO LAWSUIT STOPS THE BURIAL OF HIGH CHIEF O. B. LULU-BRIGGS

Based on the above, it is crystal clear that although Dumo has instituted 13 suits against his stepmother, while she, on her part, has responded to his frivolous court cases with 2 lawsuits for her protection in law and against Dumo’s desperate bid to indict her for her husband’s passing, not a single one of the 15 lawsuits is responsible for why High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs has not been buried.

The public statements by Dumo that his stepmother, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs is withholding, stalling or delaying the burial of her husband with her suits are both untrue and misleading, as always. Her intention from the very beginning has always been about according her husband a dignified interment and it is something Dumo, himself, is not desirous of, which is why he keeps giving excuses after each for why his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs cannot be interred. He, Dumo, is responsible for postponing the funeral twice after dates had been agreed on and invitations extended to guests.

APPEAL BY MRS LULU-BRIGGS

Dr. Mrs. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, on her part, has remained steadfast in calling for the interment of her husband, the statesman and nationalist, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. The truth is that nobody but Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, as the evidence shows, is personally responsible for why his father has not been interred. He should be prevailed upon to respect the legacy of his father and end the wicked public spectacle. His stepmother, Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu Briggs is prepared at any time of his choosing, suit or no-suit, to ensure the mortal remains of their patriarch; High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs is respectfully interred.

High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs’ in his Will has directed on how he wishes to be buried and that his funeral service is to be simple and done in the Kalabari tradition, as allowed by his Christian beliefs. May God grant him his solemn wishes.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

DUMO LULU-BRIGGS: A BELOVED SON PLAGUED BY THE SPIRIT OF ABSALOM

“The family is entangled in a succession and inheritance battle to determine who is the proper person to spearhead and ensure the permanency of the Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs legacy. But history is replete with stories of how Kingdoms, communities and families go into long and arduous search for worthy successors to uphold the cherished legacies of forbearers and ancestors. King Saul was anointed because he was head and shoulder above his peers and King David was chosen because he had fought off lions from devouring the family herd. King Amachree was a warrior King that led his people to war against enemies...At the center of the crisis are the second son of the late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, who is the incumbent chief of the family and the all-powerful widow of the late High Chief, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs.”

~Sotonye Ijuye,
Spokesman and Publicist for Dumo Lulu-Briggs as published on his Facebook page on 21 October at 9:57am as well as across other media platforms.
The raging crisis in the family of respected Nigerian statesman and renowned philanthropist, High Chief Dr. O. B. Lulu-Briggs is erroneously believed and being contrived by Dumo and his associates, as the above quote shows, as being between his wife, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs and his second son, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs. That narrative is not accurate. The crisis has always been between Dumo and his father over Dumo’s scheming and hostile attempts to take possession of his father’s wealth in his lifetime. His stepmother, Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs’ only concern at this time is the unnecessary delay by Dumo of the burial of their patriarch’s earthly remains. This is the crux of her public and private entreaties to him, personally and through other intervening mediators on the issue.

Ordinarily, the common ambition of sons to continue their father’s legacies is a worthy one. However, when greed and ambition drive them to rebel against the very object of their admiration, it becomes the cause of great anguish and distress for their families and communities. Invariable their efforts fail.

The long and bitter historic public battle between Dumo and his father dates back to the late 1990s. It is a battle that is both reminiscent and reflective of the biblical narrative of the life of Absalom, the son of King David who, like Dumo, also sought, but failed, to overthrow his father as King.

The biblical description of Absalom states that he was his father, King David’s favourite son, even though he was not his first son just like Dumo. Dumo is actually High Chief Lulu-Briggs’ second son. His charming ways, salacious tongue, personal brilliance and attractiveness; his love of magnificence, and royal courtesies captured the hearts of the people, in the same vein as it is with Dumo.

THE LAVISH AND OBSCURE LIFESTYLE OF THE MOST BELOVED SON

The bible says that Absalom lived lavishly, drove in a magnificent chariot, and had fifty men on his convoy. Despite this outward show of leadership, very little was known about Absalom’s own family life. Perhaps, you too are now wondering if there could be a better model mirroring Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs’ lifestyle, right?

Does Dumo have a personal family life? Who has ever received an invitation from Chief and Mrs Dumo Lulu-Briggs for a housewarming party, a birthday party or a naming ceremony or graduation? Has anyone ever received any invitation from him for a ceremony involving any of his siblings, like his sisters’ engagement parties, wedding invitations, his father’s birthdays or even his father’s marriages? Not to mention the numerous other events associated with his father’s active social life?

THE GRAND USURPATION BY THE MOST BELOVED SON

Absalom killed his elder brother, Ammon. Similarly, Dumo appears to have extinguished the light of his elder brother Senibo. According to the Kalabari custom, that Dumo is upholding, it is the first son’s responsibility to buy his demised father’s coffin. However, at a recent Oruwari Briggs compound meeting, in the presence of all the chiefs and compound members, Chief Dumo was said to have publicly announced that at the risk of “being braggadocios,” he had “bought the most costliest casket in the world” to bury his father. A clear violation of Kalabari tradition, going by his high regard and demands on tradition against his stepmother.

After pleas from Joab and others, Absalom was forgiven by his father. In the case of Dumo, Kings, Chiefs and Clergy pleaded with the High Chief, and he too was forgiven for publicly humiliating and nearly shocking his father to death. Absalom was so anxious to be King that he allowed the pulsating rage of his vaunting ambition to guide his actions when he came back to his father’s Kingdom. He conspired against his father, behind his back, and without fully disclosing to his own associates what his real intentions were. Eventually he showed his hand, waging a bitter war against his father. Interestingly, Absalom failed in spite of crowning himself King. In the same vain Dumo was impatient with a father who loved him so dearly but apparently refused to, or was too slow to die.

The story of Absalom and his father King David has so many parallels to that of Dumo and his father High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs.

It is an open secret that like Absalom, Dumo was his father’s favourite son. And like Absalom, in 1998 after being employed into Moni Pulo Limited by his father, Dumo plotted to take over the oil company, behind his father’s back. Having perfected his plans, in 2002/2003 he made his moves. First, he sent letters out to the company’s key stakeholders introducing a purported new management formed by him, and casting aspersions on his father’s.

Next, in the company of a group of people who had been dismissed from the company, Chief Dumo physically led thugs and forcefully took over the company’s then Lagos office on 18 Festival Road in Victoria Island, Lagos.

THE PLOT TO DISPLACE THE FATHER

In a letter dated 26 August 2002 written to the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command referring to the siege, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs stated that, “The said Dumo is one of my sons now occupying my office together with other dismissed staff and has threatened to shoot me if I continue to demand from him my Naira investments in banks (which he fraudulently withdrew without my knowledge or consent) and other company documents in his possession.

“In his bid to humiliate and shock me to death and make me beg for food from him, he fraudulently wrote to my bankers in London making himself and his cohorts… (names, including that of a current Bank Managing Director, withheld for now)…signatories to my company account with intention to liquidate the account,” High Chief lamented.

High Chief revealed, “I employed him in my company in 1998,” but regretted that “…he has since then tried to scheme and strip me of all powers and all funds and of my life.” He sought the then Commissioner of Police’s help, “I am appealing to you to intervene and save my life, my family and property and the life of my staff.”

Even though Dumo’s efforts were gallantly thwarted by his father. He did not relent.

In 2003, under the fraudulent guise of being a Director and shareholder of Moni Pulo Limited, in order to perfect his ambitious scheme, Dumo sought to conceal, regularize and formalize his fraudulent actions by filing suit FHC/ABJ/09/548/2003, at the Federal High Court, Abuja. Through it he sought an order of mandatory injunction compelling the Corporate Affairs Commission “to accept for filing and registration all the resolutions” of Moni Pulo Limited passed at its purported and fake Extra Ordinary General Meeting of August 15, 2003.

When he failed, once again Dumo dragged his father to the Federal High Court, this time in Lagos, and yes you guessed right- on behalf of Moni Pulo Limited. He sought to remove High Chief Lulu-Briggs from the ownership and management of his own company, maintaining that it was a family business that he falsely alleged his father was mismanaging.

As part of the suit, FHC/L/CS/1156/03 Dumo stated that:

An Extra-Ordinary General Meeting on the August 15, 2003 had purportedly removed his father as a director and chairman of the company and appointed himself, Director and Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the company. So just like Absalom, he dethroned his ‘biological’ father and placed himself at the helm of Moni Pulo Limited.

Going further, he sought an order of court to compel his father “to surrender all the company’s chattels and properties in his possession including but not limited to BANK DOCUMENTS, CHEQUE BOOKS AND VEHICLES.” He also sought injunctions restraining his father or anyone associated with him from among other things “WITHDRAWING OR ASSERTING CONTROL OVER ANY OF THE FUNDS of the company maintained in banks within and outside Nigeria” and “from acting or parading himself or continuing to act or parade himself as director or Chairman of plaintiff” being Moni Pulo Limited.

THE GREAT LOVE OF A FATHER

The scandalous battle raged on until High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs was compelled to enter into a settlement agreement with Dumo through which Chief bought Dumo’s purported shares back for Moni Pulo Limited. All was forgiven and there was a truce for some time as his father continuously prayed and hoped that his dear son would repent. This, of course, brings to mind King David’s anguish after Absalom murdered his elder brother Ammon in broad daylight and ran away to his mother’s people. The loving father eventually sent for Absalom after three years. Two years later they reconciled.

However, in the case of Dumo and his father the respite was short lived. Dumo struck again in 2004. This time representing his two brothers, Senibo and Sofiri, who he had implicated in his initial scheme and fraudulently assigned Moni Pulo Shares and appointed as Chairman and Director respectively.

THE PLOT THICKENS

True to character, Dumo used the law and courts recklessly. This time, charging High Chief Dr. O.B. Lulu-Briggs in London and Houston. Once again, his father was forced to the negotiating table. Once again, he parted with money. Once again, he forgave his Dumo, his Senibo and his Sofiri. But their relationships with their father were strained and remained so until his passing.

However, just like Absalom, Dumo’s scheming continued. He stayed close and kept a tab on goings on in his father’s home. Like clockwork he would strategically turn up and take photographs with his father, usually at the end of gatherings where his father was being honoured, birthdays, and even whenever his father required hospital care. This explains why he would visit and take a photograph of his father who had just emerged from a coma and post it on social media and publish it across other media platforms in a bid to prove that he was not estranged from him and they had a close relationship.

THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST A WIDOW

Today, the impression is being given that Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs is the problem. Dumo has called her all sorts of unprintable names, personally and through his acolytes. Dumo has made disrespectful references to the matriarch of the O.B. Lulu-Briggs family and its other children, his siblings. He has recklessly accused her of killing her beloved husband although he has all material facts contradicting his claims about his father’s demise. He uses his father’s body privately as a bargaining chip with his stepmother for the possession of his father’s estate, while he blackmails her in public to surrender the phantom assets belonging to his father he believes she is in possession of, as he told her he would do, right in front his own pastor.

A RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF THE ABSURD AND IMPENDING DOOM

Just as Absalom pursued his father with his last breath, Dumo is relentlessly pursuing his father, even in death. He has dragged his father’s body to be dissected in the name of autopsy, without cause.

The autopsy has been done but the report is pending. The preliminary results indicate that Dumo’s father died of cardiac arrest. Yet, he wants his father’s body to be brought out and dissected again through another autopsy. In the meantime, the two pathologists that represented him in the July 19, 2019 autopsy, Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, the current President of the Nigerian Medical Association, who was flown to Ghana for the exercise, and renowned Ghanaian pathologist Professor Agyeman Akosa observed the autopsy and have not disputed its preliminary findings to this very day. Can someone please ask Dumo what he is looking for?

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs can put a stop to the wicked public spectacle he is subjecting his family to now and save himself the divine consequence that followed the case of Absalom whose spirit appears to drive his actions. While King David and High Chief both forgave their sons in spite of all they did to them, Absalom’s insistence in pursuing the despicable was his ultimate ruin.

High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs’ in his Will has directed that he wishes to be buried and for his funeral services to be simple and done in the Kalabari tradition, as allowed by his Christian beliefs. May God grant his solemn wishes.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs

�

DUMO’S ‘SUSPENSION’ OF HOSTILITIES: AS ALWAYS INSINCERE, MISLEADING

A call by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of Platform Oil, and son of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs for a suspension of hostilities regarding the malicious attacks on his stepmother, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs by his acolytes, is as always, insincere and designed to mislead the public, given its immediate violation by his publicist and spokesman, Ijuye Dagogo.

From the outset, and for more than 10 months since the passing of his father, he has been the aggressor issuing all manner of fake, depraved and malicious narratives and press statements against his stepmother.

Since Oraye St. Franklyn, her spokesperson started responding to him and his acolytes about a week ago nothing he has published has been false. Everything has been a rebuttal to the obnoxious content against his father’s beloved wife purposely fabricated by Chief Dumo, both personally and through his associates. The handful of content attached to this post shows this clearly.

Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs will without hesitation agree that his spokesman and publicist Ijuye Dagogo violated his call for a truce yesterday by promoting yet another malicious publication against Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs. So, either he cannot call his aide to order or they are the ones leading him or he is just being insincere.

Unfortunately for him, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs remains focused on the need to accord her husband and his father the dignified interment that he has personally called for in his Last Will and Testament, without further delay. She is trusting God for a cessation to the heinous attack, fabricated falsehoods and malicious malignment against her and aimed at defaming her. She hopes good reason will prevail, if it has not done so already.

Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs once again, as always, calls for the interment of the earthly remains of her beloved husband, respected nationalist and patriarch of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House of Abonnema, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. This is and remains her focus.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

O.B. LULU-BRIGGS: SONS USING FATHER’S BODY AS BARGAINING CHIP

"I don't know if we have gone to the point of taking over anything. You can understand where some people have been fixated. The issue here is how to bury our father and we have not made claims to anything. Nobody has made any claims to anything. Nobody is arguing over any property. We have not said that we want to take A or B. The issue of property is not in our thoughts for now.”

~ Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs
(As published by Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo, Spokesman for Dumo Lulu-Briggs on his Facebook page with the alias Ijuye Telescopic on October 24 at 1:13 PM)

On arrival in Accra, Ghana on board a chartered flight operated by the world-renowned Vista Jet, on that fateful day, Tuesday, 27th December 2018, High Chief Dr. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, according to the accounts of those on board said: “time” to his nurse.

They understood that to mean a request for the “time” of arrival and told him what the time was. His wife, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs, about the same time sent messages to her sisters, family and friends informing them of their safe arrival in Accra and thanking God for journey mercies. It is something most of us are accustomed to. With hindsight, perhaps, that ‘time’ was High Chief Lulu-Briggs’ way of saying, it was time for him to return to his maker. Who knows?

After all the passengers had disembarked from the flight, and the High Chief had been brought down, his nurse communicated to his wife that she was not comfortable with his pulse reading. His nurse immediately called for an ambulance that took them to the Airport clinic. Treatment began in the ambulance and continued at the clinic. However, Opuda, a fulfilled man, aged 88, who was known to have suffered from several ailments, was eventually declared dead at the Airport Clinic.

DUMO’S ACTIONS AFTER HIS FATHER’S DEATH

Unbeknownst to his wife, Seinye, that Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, the second son of High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, moments after his father’s passing had been notified of it. She called him, Dumo multiple times and he did not take her calls. She then handed her phone over to Dateim, his younger brother, to keep calling him in order to inform him of their father’s passing.

In the meantime, believing that his father had died at his home, in the company of others, he quickly rushed to his father’s residence in Port Harcourt, the majestic Sombreiro House.

Looking back now and seeing all that is transpiring today, one cannot but agree with those who believe that his intention was to take immediate possession of his father’s remains, as well as Sombreiro House, since it had always been his stated desire to inherit the property. It is believed to be the reason that Dumo has no residential property to his name in Port Harcourt.

On arrival at the gate of Sombreiro House he was faced with the rude reality that his father had not passed on at his home but in faraway Ghana. Dumo was visibly livid and deflated. Close Circuit cameras documented this vividly. He then called Dateim from the gate and confirmed that their father had passed away in Ghana. At that point he could not but respond to his stepmother’s calls.

Dumo arrived Accra, Ghana the following evening. So also did his elder brother, Senibo. Along with their stepmother, Seinye, they went to see the remains of their father on the 29th of December, 2019, and began to make arrangements for the casket that would transport his remains back to Nigeria for burial in due course. Dumo thereafter informed respected Nigerian leaders and Chiefs of Oruwari House of Abonnema, of his father’s passing. Arrangements were thereafter begun for his father’s burial, including payments for cultural activities like boat regatta on a compound-by-compound basis. The agreement of the Chiefs was that there was no need to bring High Chief’s body from Ghana to a morgue in Nigeria; that his remains should stay in Ghana to be flown in for burial.

POSTPONEMENT OF THE FUNERAL

The first date agreed for High Chief’s funeral was 26th of January 2019. All of his children and thereafter the chiefs gave their consent. But in a rather bizarre volte-face, his eldest son, Senibo, claimed at a family meeting in Sombreiro House, that he could not remember any such agreement. This was in spite of the fact that in all the meetings prior, minutes were taken in addition to audio-visual recordings of all that transpired.

The 6th of April 2019 was subsequently given by Dumo and agreed to by all for the funeral with a series of activities to begin from the 30th of March 2019. But on the 24th of March 2019, just six days to the commencement of the burial activities came yet another rude shock. It was the announcement of the postponement of the burial by Dumo on account of his participation in the Rivers State gubernatorial election. The announcement cancelling the funeral didn’t communicate a new date but said dignitaries would be informed of it in due course. To this day, the public has not been informed of a new date for the interment of High Chief’s earthly remains six months after Dumo’s unsuccessful election and 10 months after High Chief passed on. All pleas by Mrs. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, High Chief’s wife that the electoral activities will not affect the burial, which indeed was the case, fell on deaf ears.

Dumo who posted the notice of postponement on his Facebook page, made radio and television announcements and also wrote letters to respected dignitaries, is now denying knowledge of such an agreed date let alone cancelling it.

Disturbed by the long and endless wait, as said by Dumo’s spokesman, one Ijuye Dagogo, although one believes it was unnecessary of him to reveal the clergyman’s name, Mrs. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, approached the said pastor, to prevail on him to allow his father’s remains be interred.

DUMO’S DEMANDS AND THREATS

While Dumo through his spokesperson has told the world and keeps alleging falsely that she ran away from the Man of God, he hasn’t told the public what he, Dumo, demanded of her and the threat he made, right before his Pastor.

Dumo said before his Pastor that he wanted to be the person to continue with his father’s legacy, which according to him meant that four things were to be handed over to him to achieve that purpose. He listed them as:

1. Ownership of Moni Pulo Limited
2. Ownership of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation
3. Ownership of Rachael Hotel Limited
4. Ownership of Sombreiro House (Her Matrimonial home.)
He threatened that if they were not handed over to him, he would accuse her of killing his father. All these were said and happened before the respected man of God. This was after two burial dates had been fixed and cancelled by Dumo and his elder brother Senibo and before a petition was ever written against his stepmother, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs by Dumo to the Nigerian Police on the death of her husband.

Her response to him in front of the Man of God was: “So if I give you all these things and killed your father, you’d accept it and move on?” She asked, concluding in disappointment “How sad.”

The truth, about that episode, therefore, is not that she ran away from Dumo’s Pastor.

DUMO’S PLOT TO INDICT HIS STEPMOTHER FOR HIS FATHER’S DEATH

Subsequently, Dumo carried out his threat by sending a false petition to the Nigerian Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Abuja, accusing her of murdering their father amongst other offences.

Dissatisfied with the methodology of the Nigeria Police, he approached the courts in Ghana for an autopsy to be conducted on his father. The autopsy was carried out on 19th July 2019 and according to preliminary reports his father died of cardiac arrest. Dumo’s Pathologists, Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, the current President of the Nigerian Medical Association, who was flown to Ghana for the exercise, and renowned Ghanaian pathologist Professor Agyeman Akosa observed the autopsy procedure and have not disputed its preliminary reports to this very day. Members of the Nigeria Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Abuja, investigating Dumo’s fake allegations were also present in Accra, Ghana for the post-mortem.

Not done, in September, Dumo moved the same court via an ex-parte application to order an inquest into his father’s death, including a second autopsy, without recourse to the initial autopsy report, which is still being awaited. That order has been challenged by Mrs. O.B. Lulu-Briggs on account of its faulty procedure and the manifest bias by the said Magistrate. The case is now before a Ghanaian High Court.

THE INTRIGUES ON HIGH CHIEF LULU-BRIGG’S LAST FLIGHT

Those speaking for Dumo claiming that Vista Jets made a landing request to the Ghanaian authorities for the delivery of a cargo are making completely false claims and it speaks volumes of how despicable a self-acclaimed ‘biological’ son, ‘chief mourner’ can be to achieve his motive, which is to bring his stepmother to the bargaining table.

Furthermore, the claim that High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs and his party which included Mrs. O. B. Lulu-Briggs, Dateim, one of his sons, his pastor, Apostle Zilly Aggrey, other family members, friends and staff waited for ‘over 5 hours’ at the tarmac in Port Harcourt is also false.

It is noteworthy that High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs had barely two months earlier, in September 2018 embarked on an 18-hour flight to Singapore with the same jet. If we were to agree, for the sake of the argument, that the plane waited for 5 hours before embarking on the about one-hour flight to Ghana, that would be about 6 hours and nothing comparable to the duration of his previous long-distance flights with the same jet.

Despite the wait, therefore, none of the 12 passengers on-board, or the High Chief himself, was in any danger. Besides, Dumo in one of his numerous publications quoting one Mr. Ilaye Philemon, a security detail on board, said High Chief ate during the flight. That account is accurate and all passengers on board corroborate it. So, why then is there a fuss about where he died after his wife has said he died on arrival in Ghana and as Dumo is aware in the presence of his younger brother and at least 12 other people? Why then are there these misleading allusions by Dumo about his father dying in Port Harcourt and his remains being smuggled to Accra, Ghana?

Since Dumo himself has said and continues to say that when he saw his father the previous day in Abonnema, he looked strong, does it not mean that High Chief was not at risk of flying? Or are we to question God for determining the time and place He chose for the High Chief’s passing? Can an 88-year-old man not be expected to pass on peacefully to glory?

WHAT MRS. O.B. LULU-BRIGGS WANTS

Dumo and his brothers and their acolytes are refusing to bury their father, a man who served humanity selflessly, by using his body as a negotiating tool. If the legacy of their father matters as much as they claim, they would immediately stop the embarrassing show of shame and bury him with the dignity that the great elder statesman deserves. His wife, Mrs. O.B. Lulu-Briggs is eager to ensure that the remains of her beloved husband are laid to rest as soon as possible. The High Chief’s elder sons- Senibo, Dumo and Sofiri should end this unwholesome and wicked public spectacle they have activated.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs

HIGH CHIEF O. B. LULU-BRIGGS: A LEGACY THAT REFINED CULTURE

By Oraye St. Franklyn

It does appear that the call to a cessation of public hostilities in matters relating to the interment of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs is holding, albeit with frigid fragility. This is happening, not without some dramatic changes in narratives and positions by those speaking for Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs on subject matter of the unnecessarily delayed burial of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. The recent claim that it is a cultural issue seeks to deviate from the many different scandalous issues that they had said it was about.

Much as one is convinced that the issue is not a cultural one, it is nevertheless welcoming, as a face-saving decoy, which, to all intents and purposes, deserves a surgical analysis.

Today, it is taken for granted that High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs is acknowledged globally as a philanthropist who spared nothing in reaching the infirmed, indigent, aged and forgotten with the milk of human kindness that flowed freely from his bowels. The tentacles of his magnanimity left unblemished imprints right from the coastal lands around Sombriero’s sebaceous shores to hinterlands, away and beyond the flowing streams of Kwa Ibo. He was such a man, a man of such a unique way.

But the fine points of his most striking legacy and the very core of his essence amidst the rendezvous of his competing lavish outreaches, to both the young and old, may have been missed in the glorious clouds of his compassionate charitable causes. It is beyond philanthropy. It is the definition, nay, the refinement of culture and tradition.

Who would have dared believed that Opuda, as he was fondly called, a respected Kalabari Chief, himself, and Patriarch of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House of Abonnema in Rivers State, Nigeria, would have his wife, Seinye, not only accompany him to events with his fellow Chiefs but sit right beside him as proceedings went?

Going by traditional norms, that amounted to a ‘sacrilege.’ But not with Opuda. He was even known to have encouraged other Chiefs to bring their wives along with them to their events, as was the case with the first King’s Banquet of the great King Amachree XI, His Royal Majesty, King Prof. T. J. T. Princewill, the Amayanabo of Kalabari. No record exists prior to then of wives attending The King’s Banquet along with their husbands and in the revered King Amachree Memorial Hall. These things happened on Kalabari soil without the gods of the land taking offense. It spoke volumes of the character, the depth of awareness and the elevated consciousness of the man, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. It is also testamentary of the progressive disposition of His Majesty, The King, in approving of the change.

Opuda always had his wife, Seinye; accompany him to Oruwari Council of Chiefs’ events. The Chiefs and people of Abonnema know this for certain. It was no secret. She was by his side as wife whenever he attended events with the Kalabari Council of Chiefs.

His was not a challenge of culture or rebellion against tradition but a refinement of their fine points; a celebration of human liberty and the unmistakable affirmation of the dignity of the woman, his wife. After all, if a man and his wife are said to be one, where in the revered tradition, the grand chancery of Chiefs, the home of sundry spirits and bygone patriots, celebrated warriors and conquerors who founded the land and established its norms, is there the enacting dividing asunder?

Opuda was a deeply knowledgeable man; widely travelled and free-spirited. He knew culture, and knew that it was not to be used as an acceptable weapon for the subjugation of women. This was why he kept his wife at the fore in traditional and cultural affairs. It was not to draw the ire of the gods. It was to establish the liberty that God freely bequeathed to humanity without deterrent by prejudice.

The story is told of a traditional event Opuda attended at the invitation of the Amayanabo of Opobo, the revered King Dandeson Douglas Jaja V, which held at the Atlantic Hall of Presidential Hotel in Port Harcourt. Just a single seat was reserved for Opuda at the high table. What he did was both a remarkable and an emphatic statement that remains unforgettable. He, Opuda, held on to the hand of his beloved wife, Seinye, and refused to sit until a seat was provided for her on that table. That was not without some readjustments, being made by eminent traditional rulers of Rivers State present at the event, to create the space for her seat. It all happened in the full glare of the admiring guests. To Opuda, as it should be to all men, good men especially, a wife is not necessarily the possession of her husband but his companion.

His Last Will and Testament read on Friday 26th July 2019 at the office of the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt Division, was the crowning glory of his legacy. He stated primus inter alia: ‘FIRST: I wish to be buried, and for my wife, Seinye Peterba Lulu-Briggs, if she survives me, to take an active part in my funeral services…’

Nothing speaks to the will and purpose of God himself on the essence of human liberty than those fine lines. His wish to have his wife be involved in his funeral services encapsulates his deep understanding of the divine purpose of marriage. It is something to which humanity itself is rising.

Culture is the mirror of accepted usage; viewed as the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of any given group of people or society. Understandably, it differs from place to places. This is why it is unique. But most importantly, it evolves through time and for good reasons. This is why societies make progress.

Opuda’s message by his worthy living example, which I dare say, didn’t draw the ire of the gods, is that we must rise to worthier standards as he did himself. If the ‘gods’ didn’t frown at his polite interjections, nay, essential refinement of culture, why should we, mere mortals who are subject to the elements of nature, be the clogs in the wheel of our very progress? Is it not also a thing of beauty to see that the Wife of the King of Kalabari is now addressed as Queen? Was that the case before? Definitely, not. Is that not progress? You bet, it is a fine example of how our societies and cultures should evolve.

To infer that because it is deemed cultural that a woman does not partake in the funeral of her husband in Kalabari land, the desire of her husband should be discountenanced is to insult him, a Chief and the Paramount Head and Patriarch of Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House, in death. That is what sounds like sacrilege. He didn’t die intestate. Opuda determined exactly how he intended his remains to be interred and, at the very least, he should be honoured by having his wish respected.

The precondition that his wife should submit mortuary papers before a discussion is held about her husband’s funeral is a challenge of her husband’s will and should kindly be waived. Twice, Opuda’s funeral has been fixed and twice Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs cancelled it on account of his gubernatorial election. It was without any recourse to mortuary papers. Why then is that an issue now?

There’s no need to place roadblocks on the path of progress. Arrangements, which had reached advanced stages, should be reactivated to enable the burial hold just as the possessor of the earthly remains wanted.

His wife will be fully involved in his funeral services, just as he wished and demonstrated in his lifetime. When an agreed date is fixed, the earthly remains of High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs would be conveyed from Accra to Abonnema for the celebrated interment of a great man who touched many lives in many unique ways.

Those who dispute with this arrangement should remember that the late eminent Kalabari Jurist, Chief Nabo Graham Douglas’ earthly remains arrived Nigeria from far away London, about 6 hours away by flight, on the very day of his funeral. It’s nothing new. Accra, Ghana is just over 1 hour. Let us move forward and make progress. If not now, when?

CHARITY: ORGANISATIONAL COLLABORATION VITAL FOR SOCIAL IMPACT SAYS SEINYE LULU-BRIGGS

Chairman Board of Trustees of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Dr. (Mrs) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs has said collaboration among charity and interventionist organisations was necessary for the effective social impact of charity causes. She made this known during a sensitization programme on Cervical and Breast Cancer by Preventive Healthcare Initiative and jointly sponsored by the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation.

Represented by Mrs. Ineba Tongkam, the Coordinator of Programmes of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Dr. Seinye Lulu-Briggs while commending the collaboration between Preventive Health Care Initiative and the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation in working to embark on free breast and cervical screening of 1,000 women called for more partnerships among interventionist organisations to achieve the desired changes in society.

On her part, Dr. (Mrs.) Dorothy Okoh, the Chairperson of Preventive Health Care Initiative (PHI) appreciated the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation for its support and partnership with her NGO to achieve its objective on account of the severity of the ailments.

She stressed that, given the disturbing global statistics that a woman dies from Breast Cancer every 68 seconds and from Cervical Cancer in every 2 minutes, with 70% of the incidents occurring in developing countries, it became necessary to embark on aggressive sensitization and screening programmes to detect and treat the ailments before they degenerate to deaths.

The sensitization workshop, which had as its theme: Let’s Make It Pink & Teal, held at the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic and drew participation among women from all walks of life.

The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation celebrated its 18th Anniversary Celebration in September by sponsoring 100 Free Fibroid Surgeries for indigent women in partnership with University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital.


Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs
22 October 2019

SEINYE LULU-BRIGGS AS THE METAPHOR FOR REPUGNANT WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES IN AFRICA

The travails of Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs is nothing strange. As Africans we are accustomed to these things. Stepmothers are often the ‘cause’ of the estrangement of stepchildren with their fathers.

The matter is made worse if the age difference of the children and their stepmother is not much. You know the typical Nollywood script. This is not to say some stepmothers are not truly bad. No. But not all stepmothers are evil.

First off, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs is not within the age range of Dumo Lulu-Briggs, her stepson and Accuser in Chief. She is his elder and mother by every stretch of imagination.

She is not also the cause of his estranged relationship with his father. She met it that way upon being married to him and has done all she possibly can to ensure peace reigned between them and she relatively succeeded in that motherly duty to the best of her ability. Until recently, since the death of her husband, she has been painted with all sorts of despicable brushes as the young woman who came to corner a billionaire’s fortune and, as claimed by those speaking on Dumo’s behalf, disinherit his children from their father’s estate. That is not true although it fits the perfect Nollywood blockbuster script, given the prevalence of such in the typical African society.

For a start, she is a well established Information Technology professional in her own rights. She began her career with the Central Bank of Nigeria as being part of its pioneer Computer Services Department. She would later work with the now defunct Oceanic Bank where she rose to the enviable rank of Head of Administration. How she and the late patriarch of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House struck a chord is within their rights to remain private. But they lived well as friends, partners and legally and legitimately wedded Husband and Wife for nearly 2 decades until his passing last December.

Prior to then, she lived a very private life. Seldom seen in public and primarily preoccupied with tending to her husband while managing affairs both at the home and business fronts given her vast experience and the confidence reposed in her by her husband.

Upon his demise there has been a dossier of unprintable allegations against her by the estranged sons of her husband in a raging charge led by Dumo, the second of Seplat oil and gas fame. While the claim in the open, until recently, is that she killed their father and has ousted them from his estate. The private scheme is to bully her to discountenance the man’s Will, wherein he stated that he had in his lifetime given them their share of his estate as they demanded. Thus, their current onslaught is aimed at possessing the estate and nothing more. It is their pre-condition for burying a man they call their father.

While on one breath they deny this claim, on the other, they say they are being ousted as beneficiaries of their ‘biological’ father’s estate while a woman without a biological child with their father reigns over their ‘rights’. It’s a conflicting mismatch of claims and counterclaims. Fortunately, in his Will, Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs acknowledges who are his biological and nonbiological children and catered for everyone’s interest. Those claiming biological links to him and currently delaying his interment were reminded by him of their settlement in his lifetime. Why are they, who had eaten their cakes yesterday, still wishing to have it today?

The allegation of murder that they accuse their stepmother of is nothing new. Almost every widow in Africa suffers the same fate. It’s a metaphor for our decadent values system. Her saving grace is God Almighty and her strength of character. Otherwise, she ought to have been broken by the bombardeering attacks. But she’s fine and doing quite well in many respects as a woman of strength.

Her call remains for the abeyance of all property related claims until her husband, whom they call their ‘biological’ father is respectfully buried. To show good faith, at Dumo’s insistence of having 50% of Moni Pulo Limited, a successful Oil producing company his father founded, as precondition for peace, she accepted but with the caveat that it must not be for him alone but include his siblings. As fair as this was, he threw it up in her face. How then is she the issue?

Dumo through his spokesman one Ijuye Dagogo is currently brandishing court papers of a suit that restrains him from obtaining the mortal remains of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs with the rhetorical question of how he can bury his father in the circumstance.

The real question is: Will they please tell if the suit was initiated before he fixed the burial of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, bought a casket for the conveyance of his earthly remains and subsequently cancelled the burial on account of his gubernatorial election? The answer is No.

Can they also please tell if the suit was initiated after he did a petition to the Nigerian Police alleging among others that his, over 60 year old, stepmother killed his father and that he subsequently went to the Ghanaian Police himself to unilaterally and nocturnally move them to take custody of the earthly remains of his ‘biological’ father with the intention to privately conduct an autopsy? The answer is yes.

The woman is within her rights to ensure Dumo is estopped from using the Mortal Remains of the revered High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs as an item of negotiation or with which to fabricate phantom evidence to support his despicable claim that she killed him.

To this end, she went to court to restrain his custody of the body for the purpose of solely and privately conducting an autopsy. She was not against an autopsy procedure although she knew it was unnecessary. She only prayed the court to determine the proper procedure for the autopsy.

Thankfully, the autopsy has since been done to ascertain how the 88 year old man died, as demanded by Dumo and as directed by the court. The preliminary report says he died of Cardiac Arrest. The full report is being expected.

Dumo’s representatives observed the autopsy process. None has countered the procedure to this day. None has disputed the preliminary report even by the whiskers.

Any reasonable person in Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs’ shoes, knowing what she does about the way her husband was humiliated in his lifetime by his son, when he was dragged to court 4 times in Abuja, Lagos, London and Houston, and against the backdrop of his accusation that she killed a man she nursed and loved for almost 2 decades, will take reasonable steps to ensure Dumo is estopped from embarking on his sinister and self-centered plot.

Once again the point is being made that she remains ready to ensure the mortal remains of her beloved husband is buried. She has made an appeal to the respected Chiefs of Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema and continues to do so today, that they wade into the matter and ensure the patriarch of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe house of Abonnema is dignified in death and buried respectfully. She believes that they are men of honour and have now seen the light as the truth is finally out. She has given assurances to all who intervene on the issue that at any date of her Chief Accuser, Dumo’s choosing she is prepared to ensure the remains of her husband is laid to rest, so far as guarantees are made that the remains of the man would not be further decimated, denigrated, humiliated and shamed by his ‘biological son’ Dumo, in the guise of fishing for how an 88 year old man suffering 2 decades of Parkinson’s was allegedly killed.

This remains her solemn appeal.


Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs

THE REAL REASONS DUMO REFUSES TO BURY HIS ‘BIOLOGICAL’ FATHER

In response to a series of questions posed to Dumo Lulu-Briggs, acclaimed ‘biological son’ of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs who passed on to glory almost a year ago, he has through his spokesman, one Sotonye Ijuye, danced around them without clearly responding to any of them including ignoring when he would lay his father to rest except to insult his stepmother, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs, and confirm well known suspicions that his interest remains to assert his ‘right’ over his father’s estate even if it has to be at the expense of his father’s worthy reputation and legacy.

Given the foregoing, one cannot but re-contextualize this discourse on fundamental truths. This is not a contest to display literary prowess. It is rather about why Dumo, the acclaimed ‘biological son’ of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, has refused to bury a man he claims is his biological father.

It is not surprising that Dumo’s age-long greed has taken the better part of him. This is why he is feverishly desirous of fabricating ‘evidence’ to indict a woman who cared for his own sick father, a man he abandoned to die over 2 decades ago, because she stands in the way of what has always been his sole interest, the estate.

Dumo should be reminded that he negotiated with a dying man, his own ‘biological’ father, in 2000 as a precondition for accessing medical treatment after suffering cardiac arrest. Dumo made the dying man sign a transfer of his assets to him should he not survive his treatment abroad. This was a presumably loving son negotiating with his dying father as precondition for accessing medical treatment. His father, on his part, appealed to his son to sign his own agreement of the reversal of all assets back to him, the owner, in the event that he survived his treatment and Dumo did so. To God’s glory, Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs survived and that was where all hell broke loose. There’s evidence that supports this.

Dumo would later be embroiled in a scandalous fight with his own father over the ownership of his father’s estate while the man was still alive. It was so bad that to save his name, his father had to enter into 2 settlement agreements with his own son, a son who claims biological links with him. Dumo had to be given ‘his share’ of the estate. Port Harcourt people have not forgotten that episode and will not forget it in a hurry. There’s solid evidence that supports this.

In none of these matters was Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs personally involved. She was not even married to his acclaimed biological father at the time. She met the crisis upon her marriage and has never been involved with it except to the extent of suing for peace among them.

This same Dumo in spite of the humongous body of evidence against him claims that his father handed him a will after enduring these bitter battles with him? It’s beyond being laughable.

Dumo, in the lifetime of his acclaimed ‘biological’ father was known to attend family events late and left almost immediately but not without always taking one of those showy photos he readily publishes today with a father with whom he had an estranged relationship.

Can Dumo show proof that in all the years, about twenty solid years, his father suffered Parkinson’s he played a single role in his medical management? Yet, today, he readily seeks to debase, dehumanise and frame-up a woman, his stepmother, who nursed and loved his father, her husband until his passing at age 88.

It is becoming clear that Dumo will not bury his father and will seek to debase his legacy as punishment for stating in his will that he, Dumo, had been given his share of the estate. This cannot but be the logical conclusion given his actions against his father during his lifetime and those against his stepmother after his father’s demise.

Dumo has conveyed to his stepmother a proposal of his settlement terms listing properties he must possess, some of which his father had gifted others during his lifetime as precondition to bury his father’s remains. Dumo claims that until those terms are acceded to, which most importantly includes the setting aside of his father’s will, he would not move forward on the burial of his father. There is solid evidence including visual evidence that supports this.

Dumo should remind himself of his conversation with his stepmother in her sitting room. If he wants the evidence in the public domain, it will be published. She, a woman aged over 60, refuses to be blackmailed as being the reason her husband is not buried or that she killed him.

Dumo has no interest in burying his ‘biological’ father except and until he acquires his estate. Fortunately, his father knew better about biology and in the coming days it would be clearer.

Oraye St. Franklyn
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs
20 October 2019

CAN DUMO PLEASE DENY THESE FACTS?

It is interesting to see how the unwholesome and needless diatribe by acolytes of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, especially one Ijuye Dagogo presumably on Dumo’s instruction, struggle to defend his refusal to lay his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, to rest and rather choosing to pass the buck to his stepmother, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs .

His feigned public pretext of ignorance of the circumstances surrounding his father’s demise is defeated and overshadowed by his private negotiation of preconditions for burying his father. It is something his acolytes will readily deny on his behalf. However documentary and electronic evidence would speak for themselves at the appropriate time.

The claim that Dumo is interested in the burial of his father or desires to unearth the phantom mysterious circumstances under which his ailing father passed, a man who endured Parkinson’s for 2 decades, is utter balderdash. If those were the issues, he would have made them known before fixing the first date of his father’s interment.

The reason he gave for cancelling that burial was that he was vying for the plump job of Governor of Rivers State in the 2019 General Elections. Having bitterly lost that contest as has always been the case for all succeeding electoral seasons since 2003, the recourse to a suspicion of the conspiratory murder of his father, High Chief (Dr.) O. B. Lulu-Briggs by his stepmother, the only person under whose care he had been nursed for years without fail until his quiet passing, appears to be the fall-back scheme.

Can Dumo please deny that he did not send any terms of settlements to his stepmother as preconditions for his father’s interment?

Can Dumo please deny that he did not purchase a casket with which to convey his father’s remains for burial? How does one who claims to have no access to the earthly remains of his father purchase and deposit a casket for the conveyance of his remains for burial?

Can Dumo please deny that he was not informed directly by his stepmother the very day his father passed on and that he did not arrive Accra, Ghana, the very next day 28th of December 2018?

Can Dumo please deny that he was not the very person who informed respected Nigerian leaders of the passing of his father after conferring with his stepmother and accessing his father’s remains?

Can Dumo please deny that he didn’t have access to his father’s remains and didn’t fix a burial date that he subsequently postponed?

Can Dumo please deny that he did not demand from his stepmother 50% of her value in Monipulo Limited and also rejected her acceptance based on her insistence that it must be for both him and his siblings being all his father’s children?

Can Dumo please deny that he never claimed to demand for her matrimonial residence until the interjection of respected mediators?

Can Dumo please deny, as his spokesman Ijuye Dagogo also mentioned, that his involvement of Pastor David Ibiyeomie, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Nyesom Wike and some other elders in negotiating with his stepmother was to set aside his father’s will to which all but one washed their hands off?

Can Dumo who now wants to ascertain the circumstances of his father’s death, deny that not a word was uttered by him when his father was attacked at Abonnema shortly before his demise? Did Dumo as much as issue a statement or cause a police report to be entered on his behalf on the issue? Can he deny that he knew his father was shot at and made no comment about it?

Can Dumo please be prevailed upon to deny these well documented matters?

Does Dumo really want a response from his stepmother? Can he live with the consequence of the public spectacle of the scandalous details? Does he appreciate the ramifications it can have on him and those associated with him? Should Ijuye Dagogo not properly confer with his Principal before putting his pen to paper again, given that the next responses from us would be scathingly detailed, evidentially robust and logically coherent with our position from the very beginning. Is it not now truly in their very hands to remedy issues or effectively and perpetually mar themselves?

It must be reiterated that Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs remains ready to ensure her beloved husband is interred at any date of her Chief Accuser’s choosing. But she would not consent to the abrogation of his will to achieve that purpose no matter how damning a war is waged against her or vexatiously thick the conspiracy against her becomes. The last wishes and Will of her husband will be respected.

Oraye St. Franklyn Esq.
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs
19 October 2019

MEDIA TRIAL OF SEINYE LULU-BRIGGS: FACTS VS FICTION

The news of Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs’ challenge of jurisdiction and orders of the Kaneshie District Magistrate in Accra, Ghana, for an inquest on the death of her beloved husband and respected Nigerian Nationalist, High Chief, Dr. O. B. Lulu-Briggs has been reported by a presumably Ghanaian online tabloid, Graphic Online (Graphic.com.gh).

The report is widely circulated online by interested parties and necessitates this response.

Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs’ challenge of the jurisdiction of the Magistrate Court seeking to order an inquest is founded on proper footing and based on the following reasons:

1. The same Kaneshie District Magistrate Court had earlier granted an order for an autopsy on the earthly remains of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, an 88 year old man, who managed Parkinson’s for an upwards of 2 decades.


The Ghanaian Police carried out the said order and has conducted an autopsy. The preliminary report of that autopsy was that the deceased was not murdered but died of Cardiac Arrest. However, the full Autopsy report including the Toxicology report is being awaited.

The violation of Coroners’ fair and proper procedures by the Kaneshie District Magistrate, who sits as Coroner, in determining the basis for ordering an inquest, which ought to be in reliance of and based on the contents of an autopsy report, lends credence to the claim of bias by the Magistrate, as her order was not based on any autopsy report.


2. The argument that the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court lacks the jurisdiction to order an inquest on the death of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, an octogenarian, is founded on good reason. The matter is before a High Court in Ghana. The accusers of Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs ought to know this.


3. The claim of bias by Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs on the part of the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court is truly not unfounded. The said Court was unfair and acted illegally, irrationally, and procedurally improperly to have ordered the inquest relying only on an uncertain ex-parte evidence provided by Mrs Lulu-Briggs’ Chief accuser, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs. The violation of the Coroner's Act, 1960 (Act 18) by the said Magistrate, which stipulates that a Coroner can only conduct an evidentiary hearing after a decision to conduct an inquest rather than before the decision to conduct an inquest, lends credence to the Magistrate’s bias.


4. The issuance of two separate defective ex-parte applications by Mrs E.K. Barnes-Botchway of the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court, on Friday, the 6th of September 2019, based on the request of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, speaks volumes of the real import of the application. In the said order, the Magistrate and Coroner, Mrs. Mrs E.K. Barnes-Botchway expressed her bias that she was of the opinion that High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs did not die a natural death. The question is: how did she come by such a monumental conclusion and without relying on an autopsy report?


For the avoidance of doubt, 6 Pathologists were present when the said autopsy on the remains of respected High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs was done. Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs and wife of the deceased had two representatives among the 6, as was with her Chief Accuser and billionaire son of the deceased, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs of Seplat Oil. The other two pathologists were from the Ghanaian Police. This was in spite of the presence of two officers of the Nigerian Police: ACP Adaku Uche-Anya and ASP Justus Ogar. The Autopsy was conducted by Pathologists of the Ghanaian Military at the reputable 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana.

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, who was flown to Ghana for the exercise, was one of Chief Dumo Lulu Briggs’ Pathologists. His second Pathologist was the very respected Ghanaian Prof. Akosua B. Domfeh of the Yale University School of Medicine. To this day, none of those present during the autopsy have countered its preliminary report and none of them opposed the procedure adopted in carrying out the autopsy.

The only challenger of the procedure of the autopsy, as expected, was Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs himself, who had demanded for a tissue sample of the deceased for his external and private use. While his request begged reason, it was within the purview of the Ghanaian Police to either accede to it or not. They declined to.

Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs, a sexagenarian, in respect of the dignity, heritage and legacy of her beloved husband has kept mum over her mounting media trial that casts her and the entire Lulu-Briggs Family in bad light. For the homogeneity of the entire family of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, including all his children, she is willing to maintain her dignified silence. She appeals to all stakeholders to impress upon her Chief Accuser to allow the earthly remains of his father receive a dignified interment without placing self-serving preconditions.

The accusation that she killed her 88-year-old ailing husband, whom she spent decades loving and nursing is unfortunate but pardonable.

The accusation that she seized his remains in Ghana and is unwilling to release it for interment is untrue.

She is more than willing to let the earthly remains of her beloved husband be buried at any date of her Chief Accuser’s choosing. What she would not do is to sit idly by and allow anyone fabricate fallacies to supposedly indict her, howsoever, for self-serving reasons that undermine and attempt to rubbish the worthy legacies of her beloved husband, High Chief (Dr.) Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs. He deserves better.

Oraye St. Franklyn Esq.
Spokesman, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs
18th October, 2019

• As preparatory clinical investigations begin for over 400 women hopeful for Free Fibroid Surgery and After-care.

The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, a leading not-for-profit Organization committed to providing quality humanitarian services to the indigent and infirmed, especially, in rural communities of the Niger Delta region has partnered with the Preventive Healthcare Initiative (PHI), a non-governmental organisation in its bid to embark on Cervical Cancer screening for 1000 women.

Speaking during the handing over of a cheque for the sponsorship of 100 women by the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Coordinator of Programmes for the Foundation, Mrs Ineba Tongkam, said although the Foundation was not a grant-making organization, it, however, found it necessary to support PHI’s bid to embark on cervical cancer screening for 1000 women due to its prevalence in our society. She commended the organisers for their thoughtfulness and urged them to be relentless in their drive to promote health education and the wellbeing of women.

In her response, PHI’s Chief Executive, Dr. Dorothy Okoh, a renowned consultant hematologist, thanked the foundation for its partnership with her NGO and pledged to make judicious use of the funds received.

In a related development, over 400 women applicants for free fibroid surgery and aftercare service have begun clinical investigations at both the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital. The process began Monday with daily batches of 5 and 10 women in the respective hospitals.

The on-going clinical investigation is expected to produce the most suitable cases for fibroid surgery of which the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation has covered the cost for 100 women.

It would be recalled that the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation during its 18th Anniversary Celebration in September offered to sponsor free fibroid surgery for 100 indigent women. Although investigations now indicate that more than 100 women may become eligible for surgery on completion of the on-going clinical investigations, the Spokesman to Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs, the Chairman Board of Trustees of the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Barr. Oraye St. Franklyn said the Foundation welcomes partnerships from well-meaning citizens to support those not covered by its intervention.

One hundred indigent women have, in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, commenced free surgery to relieve them of uterine fibroid at the goodwill of the OB Lulu Briggs Foundation, OBLBF, as it marks 18 years of supporting the vulnerable in society.

Programmers Coordinator for OBLBF, Mrs. Ineba Tongkam, said the focus on uterine fibroid in the foundation’s 2019 annual medical charity which opened Saturday was informed by the high prevalence of the life-threatening health challenge among many sufferers who can’t afford the minimum N350, 000 required for its removal depending on its size.

She said, “We had a dreadful experience during a recent medical mission in Bakana, Degema local government area, Rivers state. 22 women were diagnosed with uterine fibroid in critical need of surgery during the programme which benefitted 3,676 persons in various other health interventions.

“Because of the nature surgery and aftercare requirements which were then not readily available for this health condition, we promised to look into their solution. In keeping with that promise, the foundation added more 78 women.

“Partnering with Rivers State University Teaching Hospital and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospitals, to the glory of God, we are ready and will reach out to these 100 persons. So, even with teaching hospital providing support, we are looking at minimum N35Million to deal with the situation.

Dr. Preye Fieba, Head of Department, Obstetrics and Emmanuel Ochenli, Deputy Chairman Medical Advisory Committee, UPTH, assured of adequate equipment and human capacity to successfully carry out the 100 fibroid surgeries.

The OBLBF conceived since 2001 by Dr. Seinye O.O. Lulu Briggs, to institutionalise the philanthropy of her husband, O B Lulu Briggs who passed on earlier this year, has engaged in providing free health, access to potable water and sanitation, education, scholarships, and financial empowerment to many across Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, and Bayelsa states.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/09/100-women-undergo-oblbf-free-surgery-to-remove-uterine-fibroid/

Seven months after his death, the Will and Last Testament of a billionaire Kalabari high chief, Benson Lulu-Briggs, has been read despite opposition by some family members.

The late Lulu-Briggs, chairman of oil exploration and production company Moni Pulo Limited, died last December 27 on a trip to Ghana.

His senior son, Dumo, a chief, politician and oil mogul who chairs Platform Petroleum, had alleged that the deceased’s wife Seinye had questions to answer about the 88-year-old philanthropist’s death.

It was learned that despite opposition from Dumo and his siblings Senibo and Sofiri, the Will was read on July 26.

A source said the High Chief left most of his assets in a trust to be managed on behalf of his children and their offspring.

Former Cross River State GovernorDonald Duke is said to be named as one of the four trustees.

The deceased was said to have left substantial wealth to Seinye.

It was learnt that the late High Chief did not accommodate any of his three elder sons in the Will, but stated that they should be taken care of.

The Will was to be read in April because the High Chief’s lawyers were reportedly aware that it contained his funeral wishes.

However, Dumo secured an ex-parte order from a High Court in Umoku, Rivers State, barring the reading. The order was later set aside.



It was learnt that in the Will, the late statesman expressed a wish to be given a Christian burial and specified that his wife be involved.

Before his death, High Chief Lulu-Briggs lived with and managed increasingly debilitating Parkinson’s disease for close to two decades.

Following his death, there were disagreements in the family, with allegations of harassment, extortion and fraud.

The Amanayabo of Kalabari, King J.T. Princewill Amachree, was said to have waded into the internal crisis.

The police is said to be investigating Lulu-Briggs’ death.

Policemen from Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Abuja were said to have invaded Moni Pulo Limited in Port Harcourt on June 3, spending several hours.

After Lulu-Briggs’ death, seven chiefs from Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema, Rivers State, claimed in an advertorial that the late High Chief was missing, despite earlier announcing his death.

An autopsy was carried out at the Military Hospital, Accra, Ghana on July 19, but Dumo and his brothers reportedly objected to the procedure and requested that another autopsy be carried out.

It was learnt that Ghanaian authorities rejected the request.

A source said the late Lulu-Briggs made it clear in the will that he considers the settlement payments made to Dumo in 2003 and Senibo and Sofiri in 2004 as their inheritance.

“Now that it has been read, we hope the family can come together, close ranks and show respect to their greatly loved and admired patriarch – the most successful Ijaw man ever in history – by burying him with the simple dignity he has personally requested in his Will,” the source said

https://thenationonlineng.net/kalabari-billionaire-lulu-briggs-puts-assets-in-trust/

The late billionaire High Chief Dr. Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs’ Will reveals His burial Wishes

Reports from those close to the family of High Chief Dr. Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs have reported that he wished to have a Christian burial and specified a key role for his wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs.

The Information was contained in his Last Will and Testament which was read this read by the Registrar of Probate, Port Harcourt today, 26th July 2019.

More details to follow.

https://firstpost.ng/billionaire-lulu-briggs-will-reveals-his-burial-wishes/

My Father’s Widow Still Has Questions To Answer Over His Death - Dumo Lulu-Briggs

Dumo Lulu-Briggs says the widow of his father still has questions to answer over the sudden death of the 88-year-old billionaire philanthropist in December 2018.

Controversy has continued to surround the death of Benson Lulu-Briggs, whose body is yet to be buried as a result of the quest to establish how he died.

While Seinye, the widow, said the founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration and production body, died aboard a chartered flight to Accra, Ghana, on December 27, 2018, another version said he arrived Accra alive only for the widow to announce his death thereafter.

An autopsy conducted on the body on Friday concluded that Lulu-Briggs did not die a violent death, but Dumo, his son, has told TheCable that the pathologist who conducted the post mortem was not the one authorised to do so and that the police were not allowed to witness the process.

Seinye had issued a statement on Saturday saying she had been vindicated by the autopsy, whose report is expected to be officially released next week.

MORTAL REMAINS

Dumo told TheCable on Saturday: “You will soon read our full account and the fallacies contained in every statement made by Seinye Peterba Lulu-Briggs since the death of our father. Even the Ghana police are shocked at how she breached their security and took over the corpse of our father. Her initial statement was that when they arrived Accra, my father asked them what the time was and they told him, after which they all came out of the chartered aircraft, the captain even came down, shook hands with everyone including my father and bade them goodbye.

“Now, in an action which she instituted in the high court in Ghana asking the court to give her custody of the mortal remains of our late father and not anybody else, she stated that when they arrived Accra on board the chartered aircraft, they realised that our father, High (Chief) Dr. O. B. Lulu-Briggs was still and completely motionless. The Ghana police are shocked at how they got the deceased out of the Accra airport to deposit in a funeral place inside Accra without reporting the matter to the police and there is no record of such incident either with immigration, airport authorities or the police. On that score, the Ghana police ordered an inquest as the case was one that qualifies for an inquest and an autopsy automatically under Ghanaian laws.


“The police obtained an order from the coroner’s court to conduct an autopsy last Friday, 12th of July, 2019 but Seinye went to court to file a motion for injunction that the body should not be released to anybody and the Transitions Home, where she deposited our father’s mortal remains, would not, based on the filed motion, release the body even to the police. Following all that bizarre drama by a widow who should want the truth established, the Ghana police met with all the parties on Monday, 15th of July where the police stated in clear terms and agreed by all the parties, ourselves and our lawyers, Seinye and her lawyers that the autopsy would be done and tissue samples would be taken for the police and ourselves and Seinye; that the autopsy shall be conducted at the military hospital by Col (Dr.) Attoh.

POLICE SHUT OUT

“Curiously, one Dr. Lawrence Edusie of the Korle-Bu Hospital, an entirely different hospital and a pathologist who is unknown even to the police as far as the inquest/autopsy of High Chief O.B.Lulu-Briggs is concerned, gets involved and actually performs the autopsy, in the course of which he sends out and prevents the Nigeria police pathologist AIG Akhiwu and the Ghana police pathologist from even observing the autopsy when the autopsy is as a result of an inquest, a serious police investigation involving the Nigeria police, Ghana police and the Interpol. To make matters worse, despite repeated demands for tissue samples by my pathologist Dr Francis Faduyile, no samples were given to the parties for toxicology and histology tests.”

He said the commissioner of police in charge of criminal investigations was very furious about how her “painstaking effort was thwarted by some people and an uninvited, unwelcome pathologist”.

“In response to calls by my lawyers, she gave them the comfort that the police would have nothing to do with that autopsy as it ran foul of all Ghana police instructions and even a consent order of the high court in Ghana for samples to be given to the parties. That is comforting and may God continue to bless and reward every police officer who works to strengthen the hand of justice even as we shall appeal for an investigation into what happened and demand an unquestionable autopsy,” he told TheCable.


Dumo said Seinye is yet to explain to the family the true circumstances surrounding the death of their patriarch.

“I wonder what statement she made to the police on how she kept, on the 27th of December, 2018, her husband whom she claimed to have loved inside of a chartered aircraft together with herself and allies for more than five hours at the Port Harcourt International Airport, with the aircraft doors shut, none going in or coming out? She claims the aircraft didn’t have a landing permit to land in Accra! Really?” he said.

“So what was Vista charter services doing, carrying passengers into their aircraft and keeping them locked in for more than five hours if they didn’t have landing permit to take them? Our father who was 88 years old at the time, and with a tracheostomy tube inserted, would be kept in an aircraft with artificial air for upwards of six hours including the eventual flying time of about an hour to Accra from Port Harcourt with no suction in all that time only for her to later state that as they arrived Accra they realised our father was immobile.

“Well, by the grace of God, all of us shall, led by myself, the chief mourner, give a very befitting burial to our father and husband even as police investigations continue. Seinye is on police bail at the moment and she is always very welcome to perform her roles as wife under Kalabari native law and custom. No one can deny her that. May God keep us!

Preliminary findings into the death of Benson Lulu-Briggs, founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration and production body, has shown that the deceased didn’t die a violent death as alleged, a family source has told TheCable.

Officials of the Nigeria and Ghana police supervised the post-mortem examination of his remains on Friday.

The death of Lulu-Briggs on December 27, 2018, in Accra, Ghana, had created controversy among his family.

His widow, Seinye Lulu- Briggs, who had travelled with him was accused of having a hand in his death.

The Nigeria police, in partnership with the Ghana police, had launched an investigation into his death following a petition by Dumo Lulu-Briggs, a son of the deceased, to the inspector-general of police accusing Seinye, his stepmother, of killing his father.

The post mortem, which took place at the military hospital in Accra, was witnessed by the widow of the deceased and his children, including Dumo who had requested the autopsy.

Apart from the official pathologists, each of the two factions of the Lulu-Briggs also went with their own pathologists to serve as observers.

While Dumo’s team was led by Dayo Duyile, president of the Nigerian Medical Association, while Seinye’s medical team was led by Adetola Daramola, a professor.

A source told TheCable that while the final result would not be out till next week, the preliminary finding shows that the late Lulu Briggs did not die a violent death as alleged.

Seinye, in a statement, expressed confidence that with the autopsy concluded, the family can now move towards organising the burial of the deceased.

“Since the death of my beloved husband, High Chief (Dr) Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs on December 27, 2018, in Accra, Ghana, I have been humbled by the outpouring of prayers and expressions of support for our family from all over Nigeria and abroad,” she said.

“This has given me the needed courage to continue to carry out my duties as a mother to our children and to upholding my husband’s legacies especially his service to humanity.

“Regrettably, our family has been going through some internal wrangling since the death of my husband because of the unwarranted attack by Senibo, Dumo and Sofiri Lulu-Briggs, my husband’s sons, on me.

“This has resulted in the ongoing police investigation and the autopsy that has just been carried out on the body of our late Patriarch in Accra, Ghana today, July 19, 2019.

“I have always affirmed my innocence. I have loved, adored and cared for my husband all the decades that we lived together as one. And I continue to miss him dearly.

“As we wait for the outcome of the unnecessary and invasive procedure called autopsy in the coming days, I am confident that the Coroners’ Report would put to final rest the shameful and satanic lies and rumours that have been spread regarding the manner of my beloved husband’s death, including the ridiculous allegation that I killed him.

“As a Christian, I have forgiven all those who have knowingly and unknowingly maligned me.

“My top priority is to ensure that my late husband gets an honourable and Christian burial in keeping with his life’s work and remarkable achievements.

“Despite all the distractions, nothing has changed; he will be buried at the appointed time.”

O.B. Lulu-Briggs inheritance crisis: Police shuts down oil firm Moni Pulo Limited for 8 hours


As the family crisis rocking the family of the late statesman and business mogul, High Chief O.B Lulu-Briggs deepens, a detachment of heavily armed policemen, led by ACP Adaku Uche-Anya, invaded Moni Pulo Limited’s Corporate Headquarters in Port Harcourt at about 9 am on Monday June 3, 2019 and held the premises under siege for eight hours.

The entry into the business premises was hostile, as the policemen broke down doors and forced their way into offices, apparently in search of certain unexplained documents. They barricaded all entrances to the company and prevented staff from going about their daily activities until about 4 pm.

The police operatives claimed to have been sent from Force Headquarters Abuja to investigate a petition they received alleging that the late Chairman/CEO of the company, High Chief Lulu-Briggs, who passed away on December 27, 2018 in Ghana was murdered.

Moni Pulo Limited, an indigenous oil company, is one of several businesses left behind by the late Lulu-Briggs, whose burial has been put on hold due to a court ruling following a lawsuit by one of his children, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs.

A senior official of the company, who witnessed the operation, reports that the police personnel were unable or unwilling to show any evidence that proved that there was an order from Abuja for them to carry out the raid.

The position of the policemen did not go down well with the staff of the company, especially as the armed men attempted to arrest the Head of Community Relations, Chief Daerego Clifford.

Company officials say attempts to find out the persons behind the petition have not yet yielded any results, and that the company did not receive any police summons regarding the petition prior to the invasion.

The legal representative of the company, Bright Georgewill, who was present at the scene of the incident, slammed the operatives for invading the company without notification and without a search warrant, which he said infringed on the fundamental human right of the staff.

He said: ‘’When we heard of the invasion, we quickly dispatched a team of lawyers to the office. When we got there, we met a team of security men who identified themselves as officers from Abuja. They told us they are here to investigate, among other things, an alleged murder of High Chief O.B. Lulu Briggs. We also got information from staff of the company that they broke into some offices and took statement from the staff. We are quite surprised at what relationship their investigation has to do with breaking into the company premises.


Clifford accused some family members of the late Kalabari chief of being behind the action and urged them to desist.

‘’My advice is that whoever is behind this act should desist, as this not the best way to handle such matters,’’ he said. ‘’It is not right to come, harass people and embarrass them. This is a corporate environment and the people behind this act should stop before it leads to further problems.’’

However, some accusing fingers have been pointing at it being a family member, based on recent publications in the media - including a curious May 23, 2019 advertorial by a faction of seven chiefs from the Oruwari Briggs House Chiefs which, until his passing, High Chief Lulu-Briggs led as Paramount Head of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House in Abonnema.

Other officials of the company said the recent development was probably connected to the internal crisis rocking the family. They said one group, led by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, second son of the late High Chief Lulu-Briggs, Chairman of Platform Petroleum Limited and the Accord Party gubernatorial candidate in the just concluded 2019 general elections in Rivers State is pitched against the rest of the family headed by the wife of the deceased, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs.

more photos

It was a week of joy, as 3,853 people received free medical services at a 5-day medical mission conducted in Bakana, Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State from May 20 – 24, 2019 by the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation.

The outreach, the 32nd of its kind to be fielded by the Foundation, is tailored to tackle the most vexing health challenges faced in rural and peri urban areas across the Niger Delta by giving access to quality medical services through pop-up missions across the Niger Delta. Clinics included Pediatrics, Optometry/Ophthalmology, Dental, Physiotherapy and surgery. Treatments included 156 Dental, 165 Physiotherapy, 113 Surgeries, of which 56 were herniorrhaphy and 43 eye surgeries.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs, the Chairman of the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, recalled that High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs, for whom the Foundation is named, believed in the living having abundant life.

She said, “In 2014 at the commissioning of one of many health facilities the High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs supported in his lifetime, he stated that, “Even if it is just one life we can save, or one person’s pain we can alleviate, it is a good beginning. And the more people and organizations that can provide similar services, the more people we can help collectively.

“Working in partnership with other organizations in the government, non-government, private sector, and academic sectors is one of the secrets to our success. The power of strategic collective engagement on common issues, as espoused by High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs, is demonstrated and affirmed by the cooperation which has made this medical mission possible. We would like to use this opportunity to invite you all to join forces with us on this or any of our other initiatives.”

Dr. Mrs. Lulu-Briggs was represented at the mission by the Foundation’s Director of Programmes, Mrs. Ineba Ideriah Tongkam. The Bakana Medical Missions Team comprises 150 medical and 20 non-medical volunteers, including a team lead by Dr. Sobomabo Lawson from the Kalabari National Association Inc, USA, KNA-USA, who partnered with the Foundation on this mission.

Dr. Lawson, said: “The Kalabari National Association is grateful to the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation and other supporting bodies for bringing succor to the people of Bakana town.”

On his part, Professor Victor Dappa thanked the Foundation for its longstanding support for the community and others like it across the Niger Delta. He prayed the Foundation to return in shortest time.

Michael Braide, one of the patients, appreciated the Foundation for their giant strides in helping the needy in the society and prayed God to increase their strength.

In addition to its medical missions programme, in the health sector, the Foundation has amongst others, constructed, equipped and donated a
NGN50 million Health Center to the University of Port Harcourt. And it has
also donated funds for research on Parkinson’s Disease to the Rochester Research Institute in New York and to the Virginia Keiley Benefaction of the University College Hospital London.

In partnership with specialists, the Foundation also carried out awareness raising programs on the following non-communicable diseases: Parkinson’s disease (2010), Prostate Cancer (2016), Kidney Disease and Diabetes(2018).

The Port Harcourt based O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, a non-partisan,non-governmental organization was established in 2001. Its mission is to
implement sustainable interventions that enhance the quality of life for under-served persons. The Foundation’s other programmes are: Care for
Life, also popularly called Care for the Elderly; Access to clean water &Sanitation; Education & Scholarship, and Micro-credit &Entrepreneurship.

N50m endowment for High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs Professorial Chair in Geriatric Care at Rivers State University


The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation has announced a gift of N50 million to endow the High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs Distinguished Professorial Chair in Geriatric Care at the Rivers State University.

The announcement was made on Wednesday May 22, 2019 by chairman of the occasion former military president of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.), GCFR who was represented by General Jones Arogbofa (rtd.) at a special ceremony, ‘A Legacy of Philanthropic Excellence,’ in honor of the Foundation’s grand benefactor, High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs on his first posthumous birthday.

He said, “High Chief Lulu-Briggs made caring of the elderly his top priority. As a result, the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation’s first Programme was its Care for the Elderly Programme.”

He noted that the study of Geriatrics has not received the attention it deserves in Nigeria, despite a growing number of elderly in the society.

More than 9 million Nigerians are aged 60 and above and according to the global age index this number will be over 20 million by 2030.

He said, “Based on income security, health status, education and employment, the index ranked Nigeria as one of the worst nations for older people to live in. We believe this is because there are presently only a handful of institutions working specifically on geriatrics in Nigeria.”

“We are confident that the output from this distinguished chair will contribute to what is still pioneering work needed to secure adequate resources, and to promoting healthy aging.”

Professor Raphael Oruambo the Provost of the College of Medical Sciences, Rivers State University, RSU, represented the Vice Chancellor of RSU, Professor Blessing Didia. Receiving the gift on behalf of Rivers State University, he said it was a revolution in geriatric care in Nigeria and would fund the establishment of a ward dedicated to geriatric care at their teaching hospital in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

As part of the ceremony, the Foundation also made a special disbursement from its to 89 micro and small business owners in Rivers State. Mrs. Ineba Ideriah Tongkam, Director of Programmes at the Foundation explained
that the entrepreneurs were special to the Foundation because, “During High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs’s final chieftain/spiritual engagement, on December 26, 2018, at the Annual Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House Thanksgiving Ceremony, he made a personal commitment to provide working capital and business assets to a cohort of micro and small entrepreneurs. Today’s disbursement is the fulfillment of that promise.”

The elated entrepreneurs received working capital grants and business equipment including, deep freezers, sewing machines, motor cycles, hair salon equipment, carpentry tools, amongst others.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman praised the honoree, “High Chief (Dr.) O.B.Lulu-Briggs to me was one Nigerian who cut his niche in life through humanitarian service, and invested heavily in others as a show of gratitude to a country that nurtured him from a humble background to one that became a household name. He was exemplary in his disposition to issues, and he was thorough in his business and other engagements. He was kind, generous, and urbane in his dealings and interactions with those he came across from different backgrounds. He was a family man who nurtured peaceful co-existence as an irrevocable hobby. He was there for all as long as it promotes the good of humanity.”

He held up his life as one to emulated, “We must strive to imbibe the right attitude in our engagements in life to enable us leave legacies that will stand the test of time. I also believe he was the grand benefactor of his Foundation in part because of the success of his oil and gas company, Moni Pulo Limited and his other business interests.”

In her welcome remarks ,Chairman of the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs who spoke through her daughter, Mrs. Solate Ovunda-Akarolo said, “We are also using this to signal to our stakeholders the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation’s commitment to carry on his legacy of philanthropic excellence in perpetuity.”

The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation is a non-partisan, non-governmental organization that was established in 2001 with 100 percent funding by its grand benefactor High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs. Its mission is to implement sustainable interventions and socio-economic advocacy that enhance the quality of life for the under-served. Its programmes are; Care for Life, also popularly called, ‘Care for the Elderly’, Free Medical Missions, Access to Clean Water and Sanitation, Education and Scholarships, and Microcredit and Entrepreneurship.

SOURCE: https://firstpost.ng/n50m-endowment-for-high-chief-dr-o-b-lulu-briggs-professorial-chair-in-geriatric-care-at-rivers-state-university/

Governor Wike Pays Condolence Visit To The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike visited the residence of High Chief (Dr.) O. B. Lulu-Briggs to commensurate with his family over his demise.

High Chief (Dr.) Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, OON, DCF, DSSRS, Iniikeiroari V of Kalabari Kingdom, Paramount Head of Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema, renowned Nigerian elder statesman, politician, businessman and philanthropist, was born on May 22, 1930 in Abonnema, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. He passed into glory in Accra, Ghana on December 27, 2018.

Governor Wike was received by the wife of the demised High Chief (Dr.) O. B. Lulu Briggs, Dr. (Mrs.) Seniye O. B. Lulu Briggs.

Speaking during the visit on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Governor Wike said the demised High Chief made very quality contributions to the development of Rivers State.

Governor Wike also described Late High Chief (Dr.) O. B. Lulu-Briggs as a worthy philanthropist who used his wealth to bless the less privileged in the society.

“God gives and God takes. As we come, so we came, so we shall leave. What is important is the contributions that we make to the society.

“God blessed him and he didn’t use the blessing for himself alone. He used the blessing for the society.”, he said.

Governor Wike said during his quest to govern Rivers State in 2014/2015, he consulted Late High Chief O.B. Lulu Briggs who supported his development blueprint.

He said: “He was a man that helped the less privileged. Everyone attests to the fact that he was a giver.

“I have seen the scholarships that he awards to the people”.

The governor said that as a politician under the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), High Chief O.B. Lulu Briggs was committed to ideals of development .

Governor Wike assured that the Rivers State Government will actively participate in the burial ceremony of the Late Elder Statesman.

He urged the family to work hard to maintain the legacy of Late High Chief O.B Lulu Briggs.

Responding on behalf of the family, daughter of Late High Chief O.B Lulu Briggs, Mrs Solate Ovunda Akarolo thanked Governor Wike for leading a high-profile delegation to condole with the family.

She said that the family still misses their patriarch. She said that the family will inform the State Government of the burial programme at the appropriate time

The Governor went with a heavy delegation comprising The Former Rivers State Deputy Governor , Engr. Tele Ikuru; Bro. Felix Obuah, The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Rivers State; The former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara; The Former Minister of Sports, Tammy Danagogo; Former Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo; Senator Lee Meaba; Chief Sergeant Awuse; Senator Olaka Nwogu; Edo State PDP Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih and others.