Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs has exposed Seinye Lulu-Briggs over her libelous material published on the Nation Newspaper website.
In a response to the publication, Dumo Lulu-Briggs advised Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs to let common sense prevail; instead of hiring a character assassin to cause damage to the image of her husband which is a barbaric and grievous things she has done to her own family in the recent time.
It will be recalled that High Chief O B Lulu-Briggs, the erstwhile head of the Oruwari Briggs Chieftaincy House and unarguably the head of the second largest war canoe house in Kalabari land was reported dead in December of 2018, days after his 88th birthday where he feasted and exchanged pleasantries with his family, friends and well-wishers and admirers.
Excerpt is the full text of the response to the libelous publication;
Dear Editor,
Let us begin by asking a few simple questions as regards this libelous material published on your website.
1. If Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs stopped the deposition of a supposed autopsy report in a court as your publication suggests, why then is it Seinye Lulu-Briggs who is appealing the ruling of a Ghana High Court which ordered her to release the mortal remains of the deceased to the family as custom requires?
2. If Seinye Lulu-Briggs in her claims that Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is the person behind the delay of the burial of the late High Chief O B Lulu-Briggs, then how come he is not the one who is in court challenging the ruling of the court which had enabled the family to come to the conclusion of a tentative date of January 25th 2020 as burial date?
3. If Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs is the person delaying the burial of his late then how come in the text messages and whatsapp conversation held between himself, Seinye Lulu-Briggs and her daughter Solate were all replied with an affirmation of their attendance only for them to send in a notification on same day of the meeting saying that they had another engagement to attend to and thus would be absent for the burial planning meeting. The rude shock that hit the family was for them to get a notification from the Ghana Appeal court that seinye had appealed the judgement of the Ghana High Court and proceeded to file for stay of execution of court order thus nullifying the claimed pre-conditions agreement signed by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs.
The crux of the matter: WHERE IS HIGH CHIEF O B LULU-BRIGGS’ BODY and WHY HAS SEINYE REFUSED TO HAND IT OVER TO THE FAMILY AS REQUIRED BY THE LAW AND THE CUSTOMS?
Also see attached all relevant documents which proves that Seinye Lulu-Briggs is the aggressor and cause of delay to the burial of late High Chief O B Lulu-Briggs
It is only the family, referring to the extended family into which you are born, that decides on who the chief mourner is and all the other titles that come with a death.
This “family” and this chief mourner might not have seen or spoken for the past 30 years with the dearly departed, but they are deemed to know more about the dead person than the spouse.
However, that is not the case with the delay in the burial of this great sage and philanthropist who passed on since December 2018.
High Chief O B Lulu-Briggs, the erstwhile head of the Oruwari Briggs Chieftaincy House and unarguably the head of the second largest war canoe house in Kalabari land was reported dead in December of 2018, days after his 88th birthday where he feasted and exchanged pleasantries with his family, friends and well-wishers and admirers. As is always the custom, you cannot come to his birthday occasions and leave the same way you came. He was a generous man known to many both in his home state Rivers state and beyond. His benevolence touched every nook and cranny of the Niger-Delta region.
Sadly, some days after his birthday he was reported by his spouse of about 20 years to have passed on in Ghana upon arriving the country’s Accra airport on a chartered flight.
Since then, it has been litigation after litigation filed by his spouse Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs barring the family and his sons from accessing the mortal remains of their late father.
The family suspects foul play in the circumstances that led to Lulu-Briggs’ death and the suspicion is attributed to the conflicting accounts of the widow and some other persons who were also on the chartered flight on how and when he died on the plane heading Ghana. Chief Dumo says the accounts suggest that their father died in Port Harcourt.
Though in, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs’s narration, her late husband was on his way to Ghana for holiday before he eventually passed on.
Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, who by his position as his late father’s chief and the chief mourner, and the mouthpiece for the family, has insisted that thorough investigation be conducted to ascertain the cause and time of death.
Why and how did all these suspicions come about?
Shortly after the announcement of the passing of the late High Chief, his spouse, moved ahead without the consent of the family decided to take actions as regarding the burial plans of the deceased as against the Kalabari customs. And the next moves shocked many, whilst the second eldest son of the late High Chief who at that time was campaign for his election in the state suspended all his campaigns for 30 days in the honor of his father to enable him attend to family matters of importance, his father’s spouse went about planning on reading of ‘will’ of the deceased who was yet to be laid to rest in his ancestral lands with his forefathers. These few actions sent wrong signals and the calls for an autopsy was raised.
Questions came;
How did he die?
Who was with him when he died?
Who certified him dead?
How was it that the aircraft that was chartered to carry him for his vacation as claimed by his spouse, was on ground in Port Harcourt International airport for 5 hours 30 minutes before take off for a journey of about 45 minutes?
The twists then came
His spouse claimed she had an autopsy report citing a possible cardiac arrest.
Not strange for a man of his age which means all other suspicions could be laid to rest if a second opinion is sought right?
But then she refused and moved to court to file a motion barring the family or the Ghana Police Service or anyone except herself from accessing the remains of the deceased. This is in utter disregard of an exiting court order by a competent Coroner’s court in Ghana ordering for an autopsy to be conducted to ascertain the cause of death.
This continued and has given more and more reasons to believe that indeed someone is trying to cover up some sort of foul play.
It is said, that a clear conscience fears no accusation. What would have put all these away was for Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs who up until now is seen as the matriarch of the family and in no way is being undermined by either of the family members of the Oruwari Briggs Chieftaincy House nor her step-sons and step-daughter. Utmost respect has been accorded to her and will continue to be so, but one request from the family till date which has not been met by her remains, “Please give us the corpse of our father so we can plan his burial”.
She on her own part has continued to say, “Let us sit together and plan the burial”. This in all ramifications is not the culture of any African society or even the culture and customs of the Kalabari people.
Contrary to the beliefs that she has tried to push out to the public, the sons and the family of the late High Chief has continued to say that all they want is to give their late father, brother, uncle, grandfather and head of family, a befitting burial. Is this so hard a plea to accede to?
Of course not, unless someone is trying to hide something.
This has caused a series of questions asked over time with evidences to show that something is afoot.
Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs as custom requires anywhere in the world, upon demise of her husband has no business whatsoever in the planning of his burial without the family. As it is clear even in the marriage act, that at the point of departure, the mortal remains are released to the family of the deceased and the first son is referred to as the “Chief Mourner”. The woman is only to see the remains of her husband on the day of the burial and not before. But it is surprising that Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs has gone ahead since January 2019 and filed an application before a Ghana Court asking that the remains of her husband be not released to the family of the deceased.
Between January and October 2019, Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs has occupied herself with converting the assets of the deceased to her name and names of her children, but that is not even a problem to the family. All the family is interested in is for her to withdraw her application before the court and allow the mortal remains of the deceased to be handed over to the family so they can go ahead with plans to bury their brother and father and grandfather. Nothing more.
In the light of these events, it has become imperative to advise Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs to let common sense prevail; hiring a character assassin to cause damage to the image of her husband is one of the most barbaric and grievous things she has done to her own family in the recent time. Money does not guarantee peace and fulfilment. In the absence of her husband, the widely respected sons of her husband who duly symbolize the family authority, will stand in as her pillar of strength, courage and pride. Seinye should stop desecrating the mortal remains of her husband and allow the family to give him his last honour.
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