The Eldest son of Late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs,
Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs has said with the Ghana Supreme Court verdict, the final
impediments to taking custody of the corpus of their dearly departed father has
been removed and his body can finally come home.
According to a press release made available to the
media on Tuesday, 11th February, 2020, Dumo said that with that
impediment removed, the family will meet and together with the chiefs of the
Oruwari Briggs House, announce a burial date the day after their father’s body
arrives in Port Harcourt and promptly organise a befitting burial for the dearly
departed Opuda, the Paramount Head of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House of
Abonema.
Excerpt is the full text:
Statement Of Chief Dumo O.B. Lulu-briggs On Supreme
Court Of Ghana Ruling Made On 11th February 2020
The Ghana Supreme Court, has on this day, 11th
February 2020, made a decision in the cases initiated by our stepmother, Seinye
Lulu-Briggs against myself, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, and my brothers, Senibo
Lulu-Briggs and Sofiri Lulu-Briggs, following the death of our father, the Late
High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs.
The Supreme Court presided over by Justice Dotse,
gave its ruling on the 2 applications filed by Seinye Lulu-Briggs to prevent
the family of the Late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs from taking his mortal
remains for burial, and that filed by myself and my brothers preventing the
release of the disputed autopsy report to the High Court but rather to the
Coroner’s court, respectively. The Court dismissed both applications, and
upheld the orders of the High Court made on 23rd December 2019. The Supreme
Court further commented that it had wished that these matters were settled
amicably between the family and the widow without recourse to the plenty
applications filed before the courts by Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs. The Justices
held further that the undertaking that I was asked to file guaranteeing that
the widow will not be subjected to any barbaric practices in Nigeria, was of no
effect, as same is unnecessary because no such customs exist. They added that
in any case, our late father, High Chief (Dr) O. B. Lulu-Briggs was at all
times a Nigerian, never Ghanaian, and such an undertaking filed in the Ghana
court, is not enforceable in Nigeria. However, I have since 24th December, 2019
filed the undertaking at the Ghana High Court.
What the Supreme Court did was to confirm the orders
of the High Court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei-Baffour, to the effect
that the mortal remains of the deceased, High Chief (Dr.) Olu Benson
Lulu-Briggs be released by the 4th Defendant, Enterprise Funeral Services Ghana
Limited and the Ghana Police Service, to the family by custom, led by Chief
Dumo Lulu-Briggs, to convey same to Nigeria, for the burial and funeral rites.
Since the Certiorari application filed at the Supreme Court by the widow of our
father, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs to quash those orders of the Ghana High Court
that the Ghana Police and the Enterprise Funeral Home should release the mortal
remains of our father to his family by custom, led by Chief Dumo O.B. Lulu-Briggs,
Head and Chief mourner, but rather return the matter to the Ghana High Court
has been dismissed by the Supreme Court, the final impediments to taking
custody of the corpus of our dearly departed father has been removed and his
body can finally come home.
With that impediment removed, our family will meet
and together with the chiefs of the Oruwari Briggs House, announce a burial
date the day after our father’s body arrives in Port Harcourt and promptly
organise a befitting burial for our dearly departed Opuda, the Paramount Head
of the Oruwari Briggs War Canoe House of Abonema,.
We hope that this Ruling of the Supreme Court and
the various interventions of well-meaning public officials, will bring finality
to the controversial issue of who has the right, under Kalabari native law and
custom, to take the mortal remains of our father for burial. We also hope that
our stepmother will keep her word, given at a recent meeting between the
Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, the widow and the children of
the Late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, at which she, Seinye Lulu-Briggs agreed
to withdraw all pending matters before the courts in Ghana and to let the
Coroner’s Inquest into the death of our father continue before the Kaneshie
Magistrates Court in Ghana hold, so that we can all have the needed closure and
begin to heal.
On behalf of the whole family of the Late High Chief
O.B. Lulu-Briggs, we hereby express our profound gratitude to the people of
Nigeria and Ghana, as well as the Ghanaian and Nigerian governments, for their
support and prayers. We also thank the Supreme Court and the High Court of
Ghana for their forbearance and wise counsel in this difficult matter which was
brought before them.
By the grace of the Almighty God, obstacles cannot be
boulders in our path, but only stepping stones to a higher purpose. Our dearly
departed father will be given a very befitting passage to his final place of
rest with his Maker.
God keep us.
Signed:
Chief Dumo O.B. Lulu-Briggs
Head Of O. B. Lulu-Briggs Family And Chief Mourner
11/02/2020
No comments:
Post a Comment