The widow of the late Benson Lulu-Briggs, Seinye Briggs has refuted claims made by her stepson, Mr. Dumo Lulu-Briggs that a Ghanaian High Court ordered her (Seinye) to release the corpse of her husband
Recall that Mr. Dumo was widely reported in the media to be highly elated by the recent Ghanaian High Court judgement.
According to a statement released to the media by Seinye through her spokesperson, Oraye St. Franklyn, the judgement delivered by Justice Kyei Baffour, did not at any point, part or section order Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs to release the body of her husband.
The statement reads, “Rather, the Court ordered the Mortuary and the Ghanaian Police to release the body of the deceased to the family for burial. Dumo, on his part, was directly ordered to fulfill three pre-conditions before the body can be released for burial. So far he has failed to do so.
Dumo Lulu-Briggs was ordered by the court to give the following binding unconditional undertakings: “That the delegation led by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs that will convey the body of the deceased to Nigeria, should include two representatives of the Plaintiff/Widow, who should be part of the delegation that will convey the body to Nigeria
”That the family of the deceased, led by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, will give a binding unconditional undertaking that, under no circumstance will the family allow or suffer the Plaintiff/Widow to undergo any cruel, inhumane or barbaric customary practices in Nigeria, when the body is conveyed.
”That the family, led by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, will further undertake that the Plaintiff/Widow will be ably represented in the burial and funeral preparations, and will be allowed to play her role as a widow mourning her deceased husband.” The court went further to order the filing of the report of the autopsy done on the deceased, which has been done.
“Rather than comply with these pre-conditions, Dumo is circumventing the process by appealing against the release of the autopsy report. Mr. Dumo Lulu-Briggs has made and continues to make several attempts to obtain the body of his father without fulfilling any of the three preconditions imposed by the Court for burial. On the strength of this, Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs appealed against the Court Judgement in order to stop Dumo from tearing open his father’s body yet again for his own sinister autopsy and use his already concocted and contrived result as the basis to attach his prepared charge of murder against her. This is why Dumo has appealed against the release of the autopsy result duly carried out by the Ghanaian Military.
“The report of the autopsy which Dumo was part of, will clearly show the cause of death of his father; something he has always demanded. Dumo himself instigated the autopsy done on his father and was part of the entire process. He had two representative pathologists during the exercise just like his stepmother did. One of his representative pathologists was Dr. Adedayo Faduyile, the current President of the Nigerian Medical Association. Both the Nigerian and Ghanaian Police were involved in the autopsy procedure. None of all these people, including Dumo’s representatives has said either privately or publicly that the autopsy was not properly done. In fact, the Ghanaian Police whom Dumo protested to after the autopsy, wrote to him that it was done according to the set standard.
“In appealing against the release of the autopsy report and seeking to carry out another autopsy done on his terms, Dumo intends to further desecrate the body of a man he never loved and in whose lifetime he made every conceivable effort to forcefully take ownership and control of his businesses. Opposing the release of the said autopsy report clearly shows he is not prepared to bury his father as has been said time and again.”
