It seems the last has not been heard about the messy war currently tearing apart the family of the late Rivers State-born billionaire, Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, founder of Muni Pulo Foundation.
Society Watch gathered that Seinye Lulu-Briggs, widow of the late billionaire businessman, last week, filed a suit to stop the order of the Kaneshie District Magistrates’ Court in Ghana for an inquest into the death of her husband, 11 months after.
Society Watch gathered that the suit followed an application filed by Dumo Lulu-Briggs, second eldest son of the deceased, for an inquest into his father’s death, following the delay of an autopsy report earlier ordered by the court.
The magistrate, E. K Barnes–Botchway, reportedly held that she had cause to believe that the deceased did not die naturally.
But in her suit before the Ghana High Court, Seinye argued that the magistrate lacked the jurisdiction to order the inquest, saying her late husband’s death happened outside the Accra metropolitan district where the court sits.
According to her, that the magistrate does not believe that her husband died of natural causes exposes her bias in the case.
She said: “All papers pertaining to my husband’s death show that he died of cardiac arrest due to his Parkinson’s disease.
“I believe the Magistrate is unfair and acted illegally, irrationally, and procedurally improperly to have ordered the inquest.”
In the suit, Seinye further claimed that the Magistrate relied on prejudicial ex-parte evidence from Dumo.
Her petition stated: “That the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court stipulates that the coroner does not have the jurisdiction to order an inquest when the cause of death is known.
“That since the coroner did not have reasonable cause to suspect that her late husband did not die of natural causes, she lacked jurisdiction to order an inquest into his death.
“That she was advised by counsel and she believes the same to be true that because an inquest is a quasi-judicial proceeding, the mind of a coroner prior to the inquest and throughout the inquest proceedings must be independent and not unduly prejudiced.
“That I am advised by counsel and I believe same to be true that the Coroner’s Act, 1960 (Act 18) stipulates that the coroner can only conduct an evidentiary hearing after a decision to conduct an inquest and not before the decision to conduct an inquest.
“That I am advised by counsel and I believe same to be true that in so far as the police had commenced the request for an autopsy, it was improper for the coroner to admit evidence from the interested party in the absence of all interested parties.
“That I am advised by counsel and I believe the same to be true that, when an autopsy has been conducted, the proper and fair procedure is for the coroner to rely on the contents of the autopsy report to determine whether to order an inquest.
“That it is clear that in spite of the clear evidence before the coroner which indicated the cause of my late husband’s death, the coroner relied on the prejudicial testimony and evidence of the interested party to order an inquest when it was completely unnecessary to do so.”
Meanwhile, a reliable source has revealed that there is a crack among the children, Dumo, Senibo and Sofri. The source disclosed things are beginning to fall apart among the sons of the late of the PDP chieftain.
The source further revealed that though the incumbent Governor of the state, Nyesom Wike and a former governor of the state, Peter Odili, have intervened in the family feud, the warring children have refused to sheathe their swords.
