Elders seek end to rift to hasten burial of Lulu-Briggs

Eight months after the death of Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration and production company, his family is yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed with his burial.

If only the dead could speak, the late oil mogul would have appealed to his family members to forget their differences and commit his body to mother earth for his spirit to rest in peace. Following his death on December 27, 2018 at age 88, the dust is yet to settle on the circumstances that led to his demise, which is still generating crisis between his widow and the older sons, especially Chief Dumo O.B. Lulu-Briggs, the flag bearer of Accord Party in the 2019 governorship elections in Rivers State.

The family suspects foul play in the circumstances that led to Lulu-Briggs’ death and the suspicion is attributed to the conflicting accounts of the widow and some other persons who were also on the chartered flight on how and when he died on the plane heading Ghana. Chief Dumo says the accounts suggest that their father died in Port Harcourt.

Though in the widow, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs’s narration, her late husband was on his way to Ghana for holiday before he eventually passed on. Dumo Lulu-Briggs, who by his position as his late father’s chief and the chief mourner, and the mouthpiece for the family, has insisted that thorough investigation be conducted to ascertain the cause and time of death.

Also, Dumo and his father’s wife have been at loggerheads over the autopsy process, particularly due to the involvement of a Ghanaian pathologist, which has further fuelled the controversy. He said rather than what their stepmother wants the public to believe, the delay in the burial of his father is because his widow had instituted two legal actions in Ghana asking the court to release the body to her, which contradicts the Kalabari custom and tradition.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema have appealed to both sides to sheathe their swords and allow the late business mogul be buried peacefully and honourably.