May 01, (THEWILL) – It has been almost four years since Seinye Lulu-Briggs, the Ghanaian born wife of distinguished elder Kalabari statesman, High Chief Dr O.B. Lulu-Briggs, was in the eye of the storm over controversies surrounding the death of her husband.
Lulu-Briggs died on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport Clinic, Accra, Ghana on December 27, 2018. He was on an annual vacation to the country in company with his wife, family, friends and staff. The billionaire philanthropist was 88 at the time he passed on. Following his death, his older sons, Senibo and Sofiri, led by Dumo, a governorship aspirant in Rivers State in the 2023 general elections on one hand and their father’s widow on the other hand, immediately went for each other’s jugular.
While the deceased’s sons accused their father’s widow of not being truthful about what led to his demise, Seinye on her part claimed that she was being victimised and scandalised, with lies cooked up against her. She accused her stepsons of being more interested in her late husband’s assets, alleging that Dumo repeatedly asked her for a list of the assets so that they can sell off some of the properties to raise money to give his father a befitting burial. She told them that she was not in possession of any list.
The brothers rebuffed Seinye’s offer to give them some of her own personal funds for the burial. Their insistence on the list of assets, according to her, delayed late Chief Lulu-Briggs’ burial on three different occasions. Ironically, according to Seinye, when it was time to read the late Lulu-Brigg’s will, after lawyers had filed his Last Will and Testament in the Rivers State Probate Registry, Dumo allegedly went to the same registry and deposited a photocopy of a purported Will allegedly given to him for safekeeping by his father in 2003.
Seinye alleged that Dumo threatened to raise an inquiry into the cause of his father’s death if she failed to grant his request for the list of assets. She claimed that he clearly stated that if the burial took place, there would be nothing to use to bring her to the table. In other words, Dumo was alledgedly using his father’s body as a bait in an attempt to forcefully take over his father’s assets.
Several meetings were held to resolve the issue. In one of such meetings with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Dumo allegedly demanded 50 per cent of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil exploration company founded by his late father, of which Seinye was the executive director. She told him emphatically that she could not negotiate his father, her husband’s assets with him as she is not holding them. She however offered 50 per cent of her shares in the company, which was held in trust for her children, including Dumo and his siblings. But he allegedly rejected the offer and instead, made a proposal asking that all that belonged to his father; Moni Pulo Limited, landed properties, including gifts received over a period of 15 years, her personal assets/companies, as well as her husband’s personal effects be returned to her husband’s estate and handed over to him, Dumo, to re-administer and allocate as may be applicable, thereby discarding his father’s Will and wishes. This she said was Dumo’s condition for the burial of his father.
Seinye claimed that Dumo was very much aware that the late philanthropist’s Will and Testament and all his properties were handed to a trust company in September 2013. The Letter of Wishes of that Trust is to take care of the education of his younger children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and future generations to the level they desire. She reiterated that her husband’s properties and assets are therefore not hers to share to him (Dumo).
Dumo then sent a petition to the Nigerian Police alleging that Seinye killed her husband. Ironically, according to Seinye, her husband’s older sons were the ones who made several attempts, when their father was alive, to keep him miserable and they allegedly threatened his life unless he ‘settled them’.
Thus began a long winding investigation into Dumo’s allegation. Seinye was eventually exonerated. An autopsy was conducted on the body of Chief Lulu-Briggs to determine the cause of his death, but Dumo wasn’t satisfied with it. He allegedly wanted another one conducted despite the fact that the autopsy had exonerated Seinye. Not satisfied with these results, he allegedly applied all kinds of devices to intimidate, frustrate and publicly insult her, including persuading the Ghanaian and Nigerian Police to investigate his father’s widow for smuggling a dead body into Ghana.
After two years of bickering and a lot of back and forth on the matter, the late Lulu-Briggs was finally buried, but his widow was absent at the burial for obvious reasons. Many years after, Seinye seems to have risen from the throes of her bitter experience and has continued to win and soar on all fronts. First, the accomplished businesswoman has expanded her businesses, which includes a bottling company, a foods and beverages firm, a multifunctional haulage, asset-leasing and manpower management company, while also overseeing the affairs of Moni Pulo.
She has also taken on the plight of widows and helped them rise above victimisation and all forms of persecution. To this end she collaborated with the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) to offer free legal service, fully paid for by her husband’s foundation, to support embattled widows in the pursuit of their rights and the protection of their dignity.
A few weeks ago, the Federal High Court in Lagos voided a travel ban placed on her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). Justice Ayokunle Faji ordered the EFCC and NIS to pay her the sum of N15 million while also declaring the seizure of her passport as unlawful.
Justice Faji also ruled that each of the respondents, that is, EFCC and NIS should publish an apology to her in two national newspapers. What was the problem? On arrival in Lagos from London on January 14, 2020, she was detained for several hours without explanation. Similarly, on January 29, 2020, she was stopped from travelling at the Lagos International Airport and kept in a solitary room till the following morning and released without her international passport and other travel documents.
Both the EFCC and NIS had justified the seizure of her passport and her detention, arguing that Seinye was under investigation and granted an administrative bail, which she jumped; a development, it said, compelled it to place her on a watch list and ask the immigration service to seize her travelling documents. While delivering his judgment, Justice Faji held that there was no material evidence by the EFCC and NIS before the court to support their claims adding that there was therefore, no justification for the unlawful treatment meted out to her.
While still basking in the euphoria of her triumph, she snagged two major awards, all recognising her for her work as a businesswoman, social investor and philanthropist. First was the Daily Independent Personality of the Year Award and the Silverbird Group’s Extraordinary Achievement Award. A year before and months before the two awards, Vanguard Newspaper named her the Woman of The Year.
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