Lulu-Briggs’ widow loses application to quash inquest order

The High Court (General Jurisdiction) in Accra has dismissed a certiorari application by Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs, widow of the late Nigerian billionaire, High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, that sought to quash a Magistrate's order for an inquest into the death of her husband.

Justice Daniel Mensah on Friday, February 28, 2020, dismissed the application because it was not accompanied by any Statement of Case, which he said was mandatory.

The court had on Tuesday, February 25, dismissed another application by the widow for an injunction to restrain the Transition Funeral Home and the Attorney General from releasing the mortal remains of her late husband to the biological family, as ordered by the High Court in December 2019.

She wanted the injunction to hold until her application to stop the inquest was determined.

The Kaneshie District Court 2 in Accra on September 6, 2019 ordered a judicial inquiry into circumstances surrounding the controversial death of the Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist, following an ex-parte motion application by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, one of the eldest sons of the late High Chief Lulu-Briggs.

The late Lulu-Briggs allegedly died soon upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport aboard a private flight on Friday, 27th December, 2018. He was 88.

In ordering for the inquest, the Magistrate and Coroner presiding over the Kaneshie District Court had said events following Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs’ death gave it reasonable cause to believe that he did not die a natural death, and ordered the police to produce all processes and documents in their custody, including an autopsy report.

The court’s specific orders were as follows:

1. An inquest should be conducted on the death of the deceased, CHIEF OLU BENSON LULU-BRIGGS, because I ordered for an autopsy to be undertaken on the deceased following an application for post-mortem by the Ghana Police Service (C.I.D. Headquarters).

The report is yet to be submitted since July, 2019. With this additional information to the one that forms the basis of the police application, I have reasonable cause to believe that the deceased did not die a natural death and I therefore deem an inquest necessary and therefore order for one to be done.

2. The Ghana Police Service (C.I.D) is ordered to make available to this court all processes and documents in their custody, including the autopsy report.”

But Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs disagreed with the court and challenged its territorial jurisdiction to make those orders because her husband died at the Airport District and not the Kaneshie District.

Again, she said the Magistrate in granting the ex-parte application for an inquest, proved biased against her as she only listened to Dumo, who along with some of his siblings, insist they want to know what killed their father.

Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs, who filed the process on her own behalf and on behalf of her children, however, argues in her affidavit in support of her application that all lawful documents point to her late husband dying from natural causes and thus an inquest is needless. She also says under the law, children of a deceased person do not have the capacity to request the Coroner to conduct an inquest into the death of the deceased.

Meanwhile Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs has again filed another process seeking an order to compel the Attorney General to cancel an "Export Permit" granted Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs to take his father's mortal remains out of Ghana.