A court in Ghana has granted an application filed by Dumo Lulu Brigg and his brothers for an inquest into the death of their father, O.B Lulu-Briggs.
Chief Lulu-Briggs was the founder and chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration and production company worth billions of dollars in assets.
A Kaneshie district court in a ruling dated September 6, E.K Barnes-Botchway, a magistrate, ordered for an inquest to be conducted on the deceased businessman.
The court in its ruling also ordered the Ghana police to make all processes and documents in its custody available, TheCable reports.
The estate left by the late oil magnate became a subject of contention between Dumo, a politician and his father’s widow, Seinye Lulu-Briggs.
But in a will read at the Port Harcourt High Court, the late businessman excluded his three sons but included their children.
Dumo had alleged a foul play in the death of his father, accusing his stepmother who travelled with him of killing him.
The allegation sparked dispute in the family preventing his burial since he died on December 27, 2018, in a Ghana hospital.
“Upon reading the affidavit of Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs of Nigeria, the applicant herein filed on the 5th day of September 2019 in support of motion ex-parte for an order of inquest,” the court held.
Upon hearing, Andrew Khartey led by Maame Tutua Temeng and holding the brief of Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah’s brief herein in person; It is at this moment ordered that:
“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 accordingly order for one to be done.
“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.” The Cable reports.
The Nigeria police, in partnership with the Ghana police, had launched an investigation into his death following a petition by Dumo, second eldest son of the deceased, to the inspector-general of police accusing Seinye, his stepmother, of killing his father.
He had requested an autopsy to determine the death of his father, but findings had concluded that the deceased did not die a violent death as alleged.
Dumo, however, faulted the process saying Seinye, the widow, still has a lot of questions to answer.
Subsequently, lawyers to the three sons of the late billionaire had written a protest to the director-general, criminal investigation department of the Ghana police service, demanding another autopsy by order of the high court in Accra on July 18, 2019.
They had said the autopsy conducted was contrary to the court order which had mandated a military doctor to do the post mortem after an agreement reached by the family.
