Few hours to his burial, Seinye Lulu-Briggs, wife of late oil mogul, Benson Olu Lulu-Briggs says she is yet to see her husband’s corpse.
The family has been engulfed in a bitter dispute over the late billionaire’s vast estate estimated to worth over $1 billion.
At the centre of the dispute is Dumo, the second son of the late billionaire who accused his stepmother of killing his father who died en route Ghana for a holiday on 28 December at the age of 88.
O.B Lulu-Briggs married Seinye who is now in her 60s in 2001 and is slated to be buried on Saturday, the 13th of March.
To make matters worse was the fact that in his will which was read at a high court in Port Harcourt in 2019, the billionaire willed a greater part of his estate, including MoniPulo, dubbed one of the most lucrative indigenous exploration and production oil company, to his widow while his three older sons including Dumo had nothing willed to them. However, their children were captured in the will.
She had in series of letters to concerned stakeholders, accused Dumo of excluding her from the burial plans.
Last week, her family wrote her late husband’s family, demanding that she be included in her late husband’s burial planning, and for the Lulu-Briggs family to restore her rights as a member of the family after her reported expulsion.
Seinye while reacting to reports that the family has settled their dispute, said she still does not know the whereabouts of her late husband’s corpse.
A statement on her behalf by her spokesman, Oraye Franklyn, said: “She wishes to inform the public that the information regarding the outcome of interventions and peace meetings between her and Dumo Lulu-Briggs is false. The facts of the matter are as follows:
“Dumo has refused to respond to the decisions agreed by a committee established by the Amayanabo of Abonnema (based on a mandate by Governor Wike to bring the parties together to ensure a unified and dignified burial for one of Nigeria’s most admired statesmen) in the wake of public outrage at the exclusion by Dumo of his widow, Dr Mrs Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs and his siblings from the planning for their patriarch’s burial.
“At the end of a meeting convened by the committee on March 4, 2021, (which Mrs O.B. Lulu-Briggs attended via Zoom), the committee directed Dumo to inform Mrs O.B. Lulu-Briggs and all his other children who hitherto had been excluded from burial planning, the whereabouts of the corpse of their patriarch whom he illegally removed from the funeral home on February 25, 2021, and smuggled into Nigeria.
“In addition, they insisted that Mrs Lulu-Briggs and all the children must participate fully in the burial plans.
“On her part, Mrs Lulu-Briggs has followed up with two letters to the Amanayabo of Abonnema (dated March 4, 2021 and March 7, 2021). In both of the letters, she repeated the question: “Where is my husband’s body?” based on the fact that she is still in possession of her husband’s international passport and the relevant export permits to convey his body back to Nigeria.
“Was her husband’s body smuggled into Nigeria? With the High Chief’s burial scheduled to take place within 24 hours, it’s perplexing that Dumo has still not told the patriarch’s widow or his other four children where the body is.
“Not only has Dumo failed to act on the committee’s decision’s, but he is also making statements which suggest that all is well within the family to paint his stepmother in a bad light for staying away from his obsequies.
“It is against this background that fake news such as that being purveyed must be called out for its bias and calculated intent that will miscommunicate the issues in a bid to clearly mislead the public”.
