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Daddy Lumba goes home

Justice Agbenorsi & Gilbert Mawuli Agbey Dec - 13 - 2025 , 08:41 7 minutes read

The funeral of Charles Kwadwo Fosu, popularly known as Daddy Lumba, will proceed today as planned.

This comes after his maternal family members, represented by Obaapanin Afia Adomah, Robert and Georgina Gyamfi, Ernestina Fosu, and Nana Afia Kobi, who secured an injunction to stop the funeral from proceeding, failed to pay a GH¢2 million undertaking to the family head, Kofi Owusu, who has led the organisation and planning of the funeral.

The failure to pay the GH¢2 million effectively nullified the injunction granted by the High Court, paving the way for the funeral to proceed.

Original ruling

Yesterday, in the morning, the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Emmanuel Kofi Diaba, barred Mr Owusu from organising the final funeral rites of Daddy Lumba on Saturday, December 13, 2025.

The court also barred the third respondent, Transitions Funeral Home, from releasing the body until the final determination of the substantive matter, which borders on who should lead the funeral, is resolved.

It was the court’s view that while delaying the burial could lead to increased costs, affidavits before it suggested that the immediate family had been sidelined in funeral arrangements, hence the need to consider the merits of the case.

It, therefore, stressed the need to respect the process and proper family involvement, adding that the authority of the family head to lead funeral preparations needed to be exercised in consultation with the immediate family.

The family head was ordered to convene a stakeholder meeting within three weeks to agree on a new burial date.

The court further ordered that all funds raised for the funeral be separated from accounts belonging to the Daddy Lumba Memorial Foundation.

Further order

Shortly after giving the ruling, the court reconvened and the judge made a further order that, because of the costs incurred as of now, if by 2 p.m. the applicants did not pay GH¢2 million, the funeral home, Transitions, would release the body of Daddy Lumba, and the funeral scheduled for Saturday, December 13, 2025, would come off as planned.

This decision is grounded in a Practice Direction for the Courts in Ghana on dealing with the determination of applications for injunctions to restrain the burial of a deceased person.

Launched in 2024, the Practice Direction was put together by both lower court judges and Justices of the Superior Court.

Although they have no force in law, Practice Directions serve as protocols for the justice administration in Ghana.

Using the famous case law of Neequaye and Another vs Okoe 1993-94] 1 GLR 538, the Practice Direction establishes that the corpse of a deceased person is under the control and authority of the family, which includes both the immediate and the wider family members.

It also gives the family the obligation to arrange for a funeral that reflects the deceased's social standing and the family's dignity.

Damages

Specifically, 4(d) of the Practice Direction states that where an application is brought in less than two weeks before a scheduled burial, such an application ought to be refused unless there is compelling reason to grant it, including adequate undertaking as to damages that may be occasioned due to disruption of pre-arranged burial rites and funeral activities.

It is, therefore, based on this that courts generally order that the payment of an undertaking be paid by the applicants in such circumstances.

In his ruling, Justice Diaba emphatically stated that if by 2 p.m. yesterday, the applicants failed to deposit the money, the order of interlocutory injunction would be vacated.

By close of day yesterday, lawyers for the family head confirmed that the applicants were unable to pay the GH¢2 million undertaking, and as such, had procured an order directed at Transitions to release the body.

Application

The ruling of the High Court followed an application for an injunction from some of the maternal family members of Daddy Lumba, including his sister, Ernestina Brempomaa and his uncle, Yaw Opoku.

Per the documents filed in court, the applicants argued that their family head, Kwame Owusu, had sidelined them in the preparation for the funeral.

Earlier cases

The burial and final funeral rites of Daddy Lumba have been fraught with a legal tussle by some aggrieved parties ahead of the funeral on December 13, 2025.

On October 28, 2025, the High Court in Kumasi gave the green light for Daddy Lumba's burial and funeral rites to go ahead as planned.

It followed the dismissal of an interlocutory injunction application filed by the wife of the iconic Ghanaian musician to restrain the external family from going ahead with the final funeral rites.

The application was filed by Akosua Serwaa, wife of the celebrated musician, who prayed the court to restrain the family from going ahead with the funeral until certain matters were determined.

The Presiding Judge, Dorinda Smith Arthur, in her ruling, said under the Ghanaian customary law, the authority over a corpse rested entirely with the family.

Who is Daddy Lumba’s wife?

On November 28, 2025, the same court declared that both Akosua Serwaa Fosuh and Priscilla Ofori were duly married to Daddy Lumba.

The court, presided over by Justice Arthur, consequently, dismissed the claim of Akosua Serwaa in a suit which prayed the court to declare her as the sole wife of the late entertainer and to be the one to be allowed to perform the widowhood rites.

It was the view of Akosua Serwaa that the legendary Daddy Lumba married her under the Ordinance Law (Civil Marriage) and was, therefore, the only surviving wife of the musician.

Delivering her judgment in a packed court, the presiding judge said Serwaa failed to produce the original copy of the Ordinance Marriage Certificate and therefore declared that the two wives were both customarily married to Charles Kwadwo Fosuh.

Manhyia distances itself

Last Thursday, the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, issued a statement distancing itself from reports linking it to preparations for the burial rites of the musician.

The palace urged the general public to disregard any reports which attempted to associate the palace with issues concerning the funeral.

Preparations

When the Daily Graphic visited the funeral grounds yesterday, feverish preparations were underway at the Heroes’ Park in the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, ahead of the final funeral rites of the legendary Ghanaian musical icon, which initially appeared impossible due to the earlier ruling of the day.

Final preparations for the funeral started last Thursday and continued the following day, before being halted at around 11 a.m. after the news of the restraining order went viral.

Already, some workers had laid carpets at the venue and mounted a number of canopies, with the stage preparation starting right after the failure to pay GH¢2 million.

Also, the entrance to the park and its surroundings had been decorated with photographs and billboards of the musician to reflect his status in the Ghanaian music industry.

Welcome decision

Some of the people who thronged the venue welcomed the court’s decision, which gave the green light for the funeral to go ahead.

One of the fans of the musician, Mary Asamoah, said she travelled from Akuapem to attend the funeral and expressed delight that the court had cleared the way for the funeral to be held.

“If the funeral had been postponed, it would have dented the image of the musician,” she said.

A resident of Kumasi and Lumba fan, Kojo Poku, urged the family to put the court issue behind them and come together to deliver a befitting burial in honour of Daddy Lumba.