"Why my stepson is against me " – Seinye Briggs

The poor widow Seinye Briggs who made the remarks in a statement she issued to newsmen through her spokesperson, Oraye St. Franklyn stressed that Dumo is plotting to rubbish her husband’s legacy and undermine his last Will and testaments.

Seinye, widow of Benson Lulu-Briggs, founder of Moni Pulo Limited, on Tuesday opened up on the reason her stepson, Dumo Lulu-Briggs is hell-bent on portraying her in a bad light.

Her new outcry is in reaction to a malicious publication published on Facebook on December 30, 2019 at 12:20pm by Uche Woke (who goes by the sobriquet: Uchman Dela Rosa on Facebook), a media aide to Dumo Lulu-Briggs alleging that she murdered her husband – she shared certain documents putting to lie certain claims, as well as, described the report as totally untrue and a deliberate attempt targeted at maligning her person.

The statement reads, “The outrageous publication published on Facebook on December 30, 2019 at 12:20pm by Uche Woke (who goes by the sobriquet: Uchman Dela Rosa on Facebook), a media aide to Dumo Lulu-Briggs alleging that Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs murdered her husband, smuggled his remains to Ghana and deposited same in Ghana in the absence of his children is a false and malicious publication that defames her.

She and her husband were on the trip to Ghana on the said date December 27, 2018 with two of his sons and a host of other persons. She believes that it is shameful that a chief would allow his media aide to refer to his father as dead at a time he knew he was well alive.

The said publication (https://www.facebook.com/100000305836627/posts/2874646485888851/? d=n) further states that the widow of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs went to court to stop the children of the deceased from accessing the body of their father, her husband, for burial; that “she hurriedly organized an autopsy without following all the lawful procedures and guidelines meant to guarantee transparency that was ordered by the court”; that being “concerned about wealth, she read a certain ‘Will’ before burial, relocating companies and packing properties belonging to O. B. Lulu- Briggs to unknown destinations.”

Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs categorically states that all of the above allegations in the said publication are untrue and part of a wicked plot by her son Dumo Lulu-Briggs to cast her in bad light and stigmatize her person as a wicked widow with the primary aim of rubbishing her husband’s legacy and undermining his Last Will and Testaments.

Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs recalls that the trauma suffered by High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs in standing in the dock as an accused person, watching his son and friends prosecute him for fraud and trying to wrestle the company he founded from him over 2 decades ago, was enough to have killed him. Fortunately, the great man survived that, including serial heart attacks, lived for many years after and continues to live on today in the hearts of those who love him.

Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs is amazed at the character of a son who gives share transfer documents to his father who at the time was battling a heart attack in order for the ill man to sign over his shares to the son as he (the father) was being rushed overseas for treatment.

What other purpose could that have been for other than in anticipation of his father’s death? She is further amazed at the audacity of the son who would later refuse to handover the share transfer documents back to his father when God saved him and he survived the heart attack.

For the High Chief to have survived that heart attack could reasonably have been quite upsetting for the conspiring sons as it complicated their plans. Perhaps, it is the same reason the son saw, addressed and consented to his aides address his own father as being dead while he was still alive.

Beyond taking the necessary legal action to protect herself against the serial, ill conceited acts of libel and defamation by acolytes of her son Dumo Lulu- Briggs, she wishes to reiterate the following:

1. Her husband, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, died in Accra, Ghana, on the 27th of December, 2018 shortly after arriving for his annual vacation.

2. All seven Children of the High Chief were at the mortuary on the 29th of December, 2019. Thereafter the family including Dumo saw their father’s body at least two times. Dumo has not denied that he arranged with the managers of the mortuary to make a casket with which to convey the body of his father for burial. He and his elder brother, Senibo, returned to the mortuary and inspected the casket that was delivered there.

3. The allegation that Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs killed her husband, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, began after she was threatened by Dumo Lulu-Briggs, her stepson, right before his Pastor that if she didn’t give him four legacy assets namely: Moni Pulo Limited, Sombriero House (her matrimonial home), Rachael Hotel and the O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation he would go public with an allegation against her that she killed her husband.

4. Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs told Dumo Lulu-Briggs that he knew she didn’t kill her husband and that what he wanted would mean setting aside her husband’s Will. She reiterates that she told him she had no powers to do so, that moreover the Will provided for the well-being of his Children, grandchildren and future generations, of whom Dumo’s first son, is the only grandchild mentioned by name and bequeathed with a property in the Will. She however agreed to gift 50% of her shares in Moni Pulo Limited to all seven children of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, which Dumo demanded for himself alone. He accepted the offer and later declined it in writing.

5. Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs also told Dumo that most of his father’s assets were bequeathed to a Trust that he had set up by himself during his lifetime. As such, she had no powers to cancel the Trust and or redistribute the said properties as Dumo would have wished.

6. Failing to satisfy his untoward and unreasonable demands, Dumo Lulu- Briggs wrote a petition to the Nigerian Police falsely alleging that she killed her husband.

7. Dumo Lulu-Briggs approached both the Police and a Magistrate Court in Ghana to organize an autopsy that did not provide representation for Dr. Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs, who is accused of murdering her 88-year-old husband.

8. To protect herself and ensure the autopsy process was fair to all parties involved, ie. both the accused and the accuser, she went to court to ensure the autopsy process provided and guaranteed representation for her, her accuser Dumo Lulu-Briggs, the Nigerian Police and the Ghanaian Police and it was done.

9. Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs and Dumo Lulu-Briggs had two representative pathologists each. The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Adedayo Faduyile, was one of Dumo’s representative Pathologists. To this day none of all the six Pathologists involved in the autopsy, including Dumo’s representatives, has queried the process which was conducted by the Ghanaian Military at the 37 Military Hospital in Ghana.

10. The Ghanaian Police in a letter responding to a needless protest by Dumo Lulu-Briggs given that the process didn’t go as he would have wanted (ie. as a private autopsy) confirmed to him that the autopsy was done according to the set standard.

11. The autopsy report is now being blocked by Dumo Lulu-Briggs from being released. He has instituted an appeal against its release.

12. Dr. Mrs. Seinye O. B. Lulu-Briggs has not moved a single property to any unknown location and has no need to do such.

13. Dr. Mrs. Seinye has no desire to stop the burial of her husband. Her appeal against the judgment that ordered the Ghanaian Police and the mortuary to release her husband’s corpse for burial was because Dumo went to obtain the body without complying with any of the pre-conditions imposed on him by the court. She maintains that if he complies with the Court-ordered pre-conditions, her appeal will be withdrawn.

14. 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. But the release is being blocked by an appeal by Dumo Lulu-Briggs.

15. On the 3rd of June 2019 Moni Pulo was invaded by the Police based on a false petition written by Dumo Lulu-Briggs. Workers were assaulted and properties were destroyed in the cause of the invasion. The operation was reminiscent of a similar invasion of the Company by Dumo Lulu-Briggs in 2002 during the lifetime of his father, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs. The company has now taken measures to ensure such an action is never repeated and that staff of the company receive the protection and safety they deserve in an environment that guarantees it.

It is important to state the above for the proper understanding of the reading public. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs now aged over 60 years loved, lived with and cared for her husband for over 2 decades. He passed on at 88 years having survived many near-death scares. It is unthinkable that anyone, much less, a son she also loved as a son, would accuse her of killing her husband, simply because he wishes to have what wasn’t given to him. She is being framed in the mould of a wicked African stepmother and maliciously stigmatized for simply being a woman lacking the right to own or inherit property. If she, being human can be this vilified without committing any crime whatsoever, what then could have happened to dogs and cats that inherit property from their owners in other climes if they were in Nigeria?”