…As Battle For His $20B Company Heightens
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Information reaching TPCN reveals that the autopsy result conducted to ascertain the real cause of the death of oil and gas business mogul, High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs has come out.
The autopsy was conducted in Ghana where the corpse of the Abonnema-born High Chief was deposited in a mortuary after his demise there on 27th December 2018.
A source close to the O.B. Lulu-Briggs family told TPCN today (Saturday, 20th July 2019) that the autopsy was conducted in Ghana this week in the presence of some family members and pathologists representing the various warring factions to avoid any atom of doubt over the authenticity of the autopsy result.
Although the source could not disclose the result of the autopsy to TPCN to avoid pre-empting what he described as “the appropriate family authorities saddled with the responsibility to officially announce it,” he said the result shocked everybody when it was released by the pathologists that conducted the autopsy.
The source explained: “It was unbelievable when the doctors released the result of High Chief’s autopsy. Nobody expected it because we never believed some of the things we were hearing before that time. But thank God for medical science. The result will now change the tide of the war going on in the O.B. Lulu-Briggs family. That’s why we were warned not to announce it because there are people mandated to do that.”
When TPCN asked him when the result of the autopsy is likely to be announced to the public officially, and how it will affect the ongoing battle among members of the .B. Lulu-Briggs family, the source said: “It’s going to be announced any moment from now and like I said before, it will change the battle going on in the family over the man’s wealth. But you see, the matter is already in court; that’s why we cannot announce the result now because it has to be taken to the Court first. So, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt either the Court or the O.B. Lulu-Briggs family. But from the result and the way the battle is going to go now, the crisis may linger on unless the family members are ready to drop their differences and work together, which is what we’re preaching to them.”
Asked if the key figures, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and his brothers and their stepmother -High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs’ wife – Pastor Dr Mrs Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs were all there when the autopsy was being conducted, the source answered in the negative, but quickly added: “Dumo and his camp were in Ghana for the autopsy but of course you know that it is the doctors that will enter the lab and conduct the autopsy test. However, neutral doctors performed the autopsy while other doctors sent hired by the two camps were there as witnesses. Mrs Seinye herself was not in Ghana for the autopsy but she sent a doctor to represent her.”
TPCN investigation revealed that Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and his brothers have been making effort to take over Moni Pulo Nigeria Ltd, an oil production company owned by their father, High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, from his wife, Dr Mrs Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs who has been running the company for more than a decade.
In the course of the battle for the control of the wealth of the late High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs, Chief Dumo has allegedly accused Mrs Seinye of killing his father and vowed to fight her to a standstill.
TPCN gathered that he, at a point, used his connections with the police to freeze her accounts and ordered her to surrender the certificate of incorporation of Moni Pulo Nig. Ltd.
The crisis escalated to a point where chiefs of Oruwari Briggs House of Abonnema, allegedly working in harmony with Chief Dumo, the governorship candidate of the Accord Party in the last governorship election in Rivers State, made several publications in national dailies accusing Mrs Seinye of hiding the truth about her husband’s death from them and also trying to usurp their authority in some of the alleged decisions she took after High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs’ death.
However, TPCN learnt that Chief Dumo and his brothers have no shares in Moni Pulo Nig. Ltd. having allegedly sold them to the company for 3 million dollars and 5 million dollars respectively while their father was still alive, with the understanding that they will not have any more stake in the company, a development some analysts believe denies them the moral justification to forcefully demand for Moni Pulo certificate of incorporation.
