Fifteen months after the death of oil magnate and Kalabari High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, the ensued raging war within his immediate family over the burial of his remains seems to be gradually coming to an end. The billionaire died in controversial circumstances at age 88 in December 2018 in Accra, Ghana and left behind a huge estate. However, the deceased’s remains and funeral rites have been tangled in litigation.
Following his death, the OB Lulu-Briggs’ widow, Dr. Seinye Lulu-Briggs and deceased’s second son, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs had been at each other’s jugular over the circumstances surrounding his death and who would take custody of the corpse.
Seinye had filed a certiorari application before the Supreme Court in Accra, Ghana to stop the Ghana Police and the Transition Funeral Home from releasing the remains of her husband to the family. But the apex court declined her application for an injunction. Delivering the judgement, Justice Daniel Mensah, while declining Seinye’s application, also ordered the family —coincidentally represented by Dumo— to take custody of the corpse for onward transportation to the deceased hometown of Abonnema in Rivers State for burial. This order followed accusations and counter-accusations between the two gladiators —Seinye and Dumo.
Spotlight gathered that this didn’t go down well with the widow but couldn’t do anything since the order was from the Ghana Apex Court. After much scheming, High Chief OB Lulu-Briggs’ body was eventually released to Dumo penultimate week and finally brought his father’s remains to Nigeria, deposited at an undisclosed morgue pending when a burial date will be fixed by the entire Oruwari Briggs clan.
Many have expressed shock over the dust raised by some sections of the billionaire’s extended family over his death and the imbroglio that followed which has denied him peaceful rest since. They had expected the family to have accepted the grim reality of the passing of the late businessman and philanthropist and accorded him the respect deserving of a man of his stature by giving him a befitting burial according to the Kalabari culture and tradition. However, that is coming to be now as it was learnt that both the immediate and extended Lulu-Briggs family have finally agreed to bury their hatchet and sheathe their swords after intervention of well-meaning Nigerians. And the good news according to sources is that meetings are on-going to agree on a date for the burial of High Chief O.B Lulu-Briggs, their patriarch who was the founder of Moni Pulo Limited, a prosperous oil exploration and production company which currently owns oil blocks in Ondo, Abia and Akwa Ibom States with its flagship OML 114 producing 10,000 BPOD.