Lulu-Briggs: Late Chief's Son and Widow Fights Dirty Over Autopsy Report As His Body Remain in Mortuary ONE YEAR After Death

Dumo Lulu-Briggs, son of the late philanthropist Olu Lulu-Briggs has accused his father’s widow, Seinye, of deliberately delaying his father’s burial, which is fixed for January 25.

Lulu-Briggs died on December 27, 2018.

Dumo, through his spokesman Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo, said: “Asked to release her husband’s body for burial, Seinye refused, and it is more than a year now. The Ghana Police Service instituted an autopsy and obtained an order of the coroner to conduct an autopsy, amid severe opposition from Seinye.

“Eventually, Seinye managed to smuggle in a stranger pathologist, Dr. Lawrence Edusei, to bungle and render unacceptable an autopsy process that was not only a police initiative, but also a coroner’s order. Dr. Edusei walked out the Ghana Police pathologist and the Nigeria Police pathologist from the autopsy theatre and refused to give tissue samples to the parties.

By this act, Seinye ended up orchestrating an autopsy that breached the terms of a consent order of the high court which her lawyers obtained, in which it was clearly stated that Col. Attoh of the 37 Military Hospital, Accra, should perform the autopsy.

“On September 6, 2019, Mrs. E.K. Barnes-Botchway, the magistrate and  coroner, concluded that events following the death of High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, including statements of persons on the flight, and the doctor that examined his body on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport Clinic, Accra, shows that Chief Lulu-Briggs did not die a natural death. The coroner, therefore, ordered an inquest into his death, but Seinye runs to a court with a certiorari application to stop the inquest.

What is Seinye hiding? How did her husband’s dead body get to Ghana from Nigeria?

“What has Seinye done that she does not want an inquest into the death of High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs? It looks like she is terrified of an inquest or a transparent autopsy, because she may not be able to compromise the pathologists again.

“Shamelessly, Seinye is reported to have said the January 25 burial date is achievable. This is against the fact that the Ghana Appeal Court will begin to hear her appeal on January 24. What kind of woman is she?

“Seinye claimed to have given two preconditions – that she would have two of her representatives to attend the burial plans’ meetings; and the family would promise and undertake before a judge that she would not be put through any form of crude burial practices. None exists in Kalabari customs; Seinye is only casting Kalabari tradition in bad light, in pursuit of her evil plans.”

But Seinye, through her spokesman, Oraye St. Franklyn, described Dumo as confused and lying.

Seinye insisted that she and the deceased’s seven children – Senibo, Dumo, Sofiri, Solate, Rachael, Dateim and Iyowuna – must play active roles during the funeral, which Governor Nyesom Wike assured will be a state burial.

Seinye said: “…whose body did Dumo identify and sign out of the mortuary for the autopsy? The autopsy was completed and the report was filed. Whose body did he identify and sign back into the mortuary after the autopsy?

“If Dumo has a problem with the autopsy, then the family should call a leading expert to review the report. On December 27, 2019, he blocked the release of the autopsy report. Why has Dumo gone to court to block that? Dumo is certainly now confused…”

The widow added that she was ready for her husband’s burial on January 25, thereby putting an end to the avoidable crisis.