Daddy Lumba's funeral: Why court issued a caveat after initially restraining family head
The High Court in Accra on Friday morning restrained the head of family of Daddy Lumba from going ahead to organise the final funeral rites of the music icon on Saturday, December 13, 2025.
The family head (Abusuapanyin), Kwame Owusu, was ordered by the court to convene a family meeting, involving all sides, within three days to plan the funeral.
The order from the court followed an application for an injunction from some of the maternal family members of Daddy Lumba, including his sister Ernestina Brempomaa Fosuh and his uncle, Yaw Opoku.
The funeral home, where the body was being preserved, Transitions, was also restrained from releasing the body to the head of the family for the planned Saturday event.
Per the documents filed in court, the applicants argued that their family head Kwame Owusu had sidelined them in the preparation of the funeral.
The court held that the head of the family holds the right to oversee proceedings but must involve the immediate family.
The court’s decision stemmed from concerns raised in the affidavit by the applicants, indicating that the immediate family of the late musician had been sidelined in the planning process.
While acknowledging that funerals can involve substantial financial commitments, the court stressed that every matter must be considered on its own merit, especially where family rights and rites are concerned.
In its ruling, the court affirmed that although the head of the family traditionally holds the authority to oversee funeral arrangements, that authority must be exercised in consultation with the deceased’s immediate family.
The court therefore directed the head of family to convene a meeting within three days involving all relevant parties and stakeholders.
The purpose of the meeting, according to the court, is to jointly plan and agree on a new date for the funeral, ensuring that no party is excluded from the decision-making process.
The court further ordered that no steps should be taken to retrieve the body from the mortuary until the final determination of the case, bringing all ongoing preparations to a temporary halt.
Caveat
Some minutes after the earlier decision, the lawyers for the applicants and the defendants were called back into the court room, where the court issued a caveat.
The caveat was for the maternal family members - the applicants to pay GH¢2 million by 2 pm same day, to take care of costs incurred by the family head Kofi Owusu. A failure to pay the deposit meant that the injunction was to be vacated.
effectively nullified the injunction granted by the High Court earlier on Friday, paving the way for the funeral to proceed.
By close of day on Friday (5pm), lawyers for the family head confirmed to Graphic Online that the applicants were unable to pay the GH¢2 million undertaking, and as such, they procured an order directed at Transitions to release the body.
The body was then released to the family head, he proceeded with the body to Lumba's residence at East Legon in Accra from where he headed to Kumasi with the body for the final funeral rites on Saturday
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- Transitions to release Lumba's body to family head for Saturday funeral if... - High Court caveat
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