31st January, 2020
Dumo Lulu-Briggs, son of the deceased oil mogul, High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs has approached the Ghanaian Supreme Court in his bid to stop the release of his father’s autopsy.
There are insinuations that Dumo’s attempt at blocking the release of the late Lulu-Briggs’ autopsy report is because it vindicates his stepmother whom he falsely accuses of monumental crime of murder.
Recall that a Ghanaian High Court had also on Monday thrown out Dumo’s application for clarification of its 23rd December 2019 Court order ordering the release of the autopsy report amongst others. The suit, it appears, sought to further delay the burial of the respected Nigerian High Chief and industrialist by evading the need to fulfil the 23rd December 2019 court imposed preconditions for the release of the body of his father by the Ghanaian Police and Mortuary.
The legal tussle embarked upon by the second eldest son of the late business tycoon since his passing over a year ago has further dashed hopes of an anticipated burial soon.
Meanwhile, widow of the late High Chief, High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs in a statement released on her behalf by her spokesman, Oraye St. Franklyn, has called on good natured individuals to prevail on her stepson to fulfill the court-imposed preconditions and allow the autopsy report done on her late husband be released to enable him be buried.
Recall that the distressed widow had earlier accused Dumo of stopping the autopsy report of her husband which he (Dumo) instigated, having raised alarm in the media over the supposed circumstances surrounding his father’s death. The autopsy was thereafter carried out on the 19th of July 2019 by the Ghanaian Military at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana. The Ghanaian Police in letter written on the 7th of August 2019 to Dumo Lulu-Briggs informed him that the autopsy was duly carried out according to standard.
The widow’s spokesperson, Oraye St. Franklyn said Dumo who claims the Police had a reason to call for a second autopsy should stop playing the role of the law enforcement agencies.
“Dumo Lulu Briggs who claims the Police, other than him, has the right to call for another autopsy to be done on his father’s body has not explained why he is doing the job of the Police in determining that an autopsy procedure which the Police has certified as okay is faulty. Both the Ghanaian and Nigerian Police were part of observing the autopsy procedure.
If the Police had an issue with the autopsy, they by themselves would have said so. They have not said so. If anything, they have certified the autopsy to have been done according to standard. Dumo’s own representative pathologists, one of whom is the President of the Nigerian Medical Association has not queried the autopsy. So why can’t it be released?
“Why is Dumo desperate to stop the release of the report at the Supreme Court? What is he afraid of being public knowledge? Do we need a soothsayer to tell us that the Madam Briggs is innocent and is only being persecuted to undermine her husband’s wishes contained in his Last Will and Testament?” he queried.