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Why I am against court inquest order on my late husband – Seinye Lulu-Briggs

Seinye Lulu-Briggs, widow of the late founder of Moni Pulo Limited, Friday explained why she is against an order of a Ghanaian Court, Kaneshie district magistrates’ court, for an inquest into the death of her husband. The Kaneshie district court in Ghana had granted an application filed by Dumo Lulu-Briggs, second eldest son of the…

Seinye Lulu-Briggs, widow of the late founder of Moni Pulo Limited, Friday explained why she is against an order of a Ghanaian Court, Kaneshie district magistrates’ court, for an inquest into the death of her husband.

The Kaneshie district court in Ghana had granted 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.

E. K Barnes–Botchway, the magistrate, had said she has cause to believe that the deceased did not die naturally and deemed it necessary for an inquest.

However, she in her petition filed at the Ghana high court, Seinye argued that the magistrate lacked the jurisdiction to order the inquest because her late husband’s death happened outside the Accra metropolitan district where the court sits.

She said that the magistrate does not believe that her husband died of natural causes exposes her bias in the case.

“The argument that the Kaneshie District Magistrate Court lacks the jurisdiction to order an inquest on the death of High Chief O. B. Lulu-Briggs, an octogenarian, is founded on good reason,” she said in a statement signed by Oraye St. Franklyn Esq., her spokesman.

“The matter is before a High Court in Ghana. The accusers of Dr. (Mrs.) Seinye Lulu-Briggs ought to know this,” she added.

Mrs Lulu-Briggs said she believes the magistrate was “unfair and acted illegally, irrationally, and procedurally improperly to have ordered the inquest” as she relied on prejudicial ex-parte evidence from Dumo.

“That since the Coroner did not have reasonable cause to suspect that my late husband did not die of natural causes, she lacked jurisdiction to order an inquest into his death.”

Mrs Lulu-Briggs quizzed how the Magistrate “come by such a monumental conclusion and without relying on an autopsy report?” that Mr Lulu-Briggs did not die a natural death.

She said the six pathologists present at the autopsy included two representatives of her “Chief Accuser”, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, two represented her too while the “other two pathologists were from the Ghanaian Police. This was in spite of the presence of two officers of the Nigerian Police: ACP Adaku Uche-Anya and ASP Justus Ogar.”

“The Autopsy was conducted by Pathologists of the Ghanaian Military at the reputable 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana,” she said.

“The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Francis Adedayo Faduyile, who was flown to Ghana for the exercise, was one of Chief Dumo Lulu Briggs’ Pathologists.

“His second Pathologist was the very respected Ghanaian Prof. Akosua B. Domfeh of the Yale University School of Medicine. To this day, none of those present during the autopsy have countered its preliminary report and none of them opposed the procedure adopted in carrying out the autopsy.”

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