Uneasy they say, lies the head that wears the crown. The family of popular billionaire and politician, High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, has been in the eye of the storm since the patriarch died on December 27 last year at the age of 88. There had been allegations of high handedness, ego tripping, scare mongering and even murder, and the dramatis personae do not seem to be in a hurry to sheathe their swords. In this exclusive interview with INNOCENT DURU, the widow and Vice Chairman of the deceased’s various conglomerates, Dr. Mrs Seinye Lulu-Briggs speaks on her frustrations, regrets and way forward to the protracted crises that has stopped the family from burying the business man.
What is stalling the burial of the revered Kalabari High Chief, OB Lulu Briggs?
I honestly do not know what else I am supposed to do. I have allowed God to direct my affairs.
There is a clear direction from God that I should write and invite all the children of Lulu Briggs house on the 31st of August and sit as a mother and address them, so that we can bury our father. Because if you ask me what we are dragging, I cannot point to anything. There is a murder charge on my head, which I have handed over to Jesus. So they keep making errors and nothing will come out of it. I am not worried.
But aside that, I decided to write and I wrote to the first son up to the last, which is my little boy. I wrote to all of them and I said ‘dear all’. After now, I will send you a copy of the letter. It is all over the internet as I hear, because people called me from London, saying they saw the letter I wrote to my children. And they also saw the reply that my second step son sent to me. He made sure both are on the internet. As I obeyed that and I sent it, he replied, and the reply I will also send to you.
What did he say?
Basically in his reply, he said he is the chief of the house, the head chief, the chief mourner and the chairman of the committee, and that if any meeting would be called, it has to be from him. In any case, that I instituted two cases against him and his brother in Accra, so he is now asking for me come down to Accra so that we could meet in front of our lawyer and then decisions will be made. That is in response to my letter. He initially said I had no right. So I looked at it and said it is like the message God sent me has not been delivered.
So I responded to him, and I told him it was quite clear that my letter to all the children was the letter from a mother. As a mother and by the grace of God, I am the mother of the Lulu Briggs family and I was a mother of the entire Briggs compound at least when my husband was alive as a paramount ruler, I was the mother. I have invited greater chiefs with humility and they honoured me. And I told him he was speaking like a non-Kalabari man; that nobody will tell him that what he is doing is wrong; only I will tell him.
I reminded him that the chieftaincy he is talking about was a decision that my husband and I made among the lot. We chose to make him a chief, so he cannot remind me that he is a chief. If my son is a chief, it is a blessing to me. One of the reasons why we have a lot of children is that they will stand at the gate and defend us from attackers, not destroy the house we built. So, I sent it back to him and still told him that the meeting will hold. If he cannot come, he can phone in.
It was after all this communication that my staff, the head of executive management office, she is the one that I would say is the head of our strategy; in fact everything that has to do with the company apart from me as the Executive Vice Chairman and Solate as the Deputy Managing Director, she is the manager. On her way home, she lives in a gated estate, the gatemen opened the gate for her and she entered. And after a while, because she was still driving to her own house, a car overtook her and crossed her in front, and within a fraction of a second, two men came out with guns. So she put her car in reverse instead of fear gripping her to submission.
And at that time, they were shooting. They broke her windscreen and got back into their car and chased her. She entered a ditch because she was reversing, came out, turned the car, faced the front, and because they were shooting at her car, the gatemen, police, everybody ran and the gate was shut, so she hit the gate. At that time, they too came. Because her car was now blocking the gate, four men came out with guns and started spraying her car with bullets. Every single glass was destroyed. The entire body of the car was destroyed. Because she was alone, I do not know how God fended off those bullets and gave her cover inside the car; that not even a scratch of the glass fell on her. And she was there, no neighbour, nobody, the whole estate went to bed instantly. Now this is the second physical attack.
Which was the first?
The first was my camera man, my videographer, Goodness by name. So this guy, the day we held the ceremony of N50 million endowment fund to Rivers State University. On the day of the ceremony, and that same ceremony was the day we established the fund, announced it and established it; that is the OB Lulu Briggs foundation. It was same day that business machines and cash was given out to 89 persons because that would have been chief’s 89th birthday. So the day before he died, during the thanksgiving ceremony in Abonima, they identified persons to be empowered economically. The announcement was made, but unfortunately, it was the following day that we travelled and he passed on.
So in his memory, on his birthday, we decided to fulfill his promise to those people. So the children, the first three sons not only did not attend, they sent official emissaries (chiefs) to meet with the king of Kalabari with a petition imploring him to instruct us not to hold anything in honour of their father. I do not know what their reasons were, but obviously their reasons were not acceptable to the chief because the Kalabari council of chiefs was very well represented. They were happy that even though chief has still not been buried, something glorious was being done to fulfil his wishes for mankind.
So many people attended the ceremony. The former head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, was the chairman. We have all the photographs and it was even published. It was on that very day the video man that covered the event, because they did not want any record of it, as he came to the house and was leaving in front of our gate, some men in a black jeep accosted him and told him to surrender the tapes. He told them that he did not usually keep them and had already dropped them in the house.
The following day, he went to a village where the foundation was carrying out a five-day free medical mission on an Island in the Niger Delta. On his way back at the wharf, he was accosted again. Whether it was the same group, I don’t know. But he was warned again that if he likes his life, he should stop working for me. They said could he not see that the work he was doing was not a good work, that he should stop being loyal to me. They quarreled with him and left.
The following day, we had a business. Thank God he was not in the house. Obviously, they had traced him to his house. By the time he came back, his house had been vandalized and they had carried away his computer. He reported to the police. Of course, there is a police report but nothing was done. Then my chief of staff received threats on the phone. My daughter’s friend whose wedding she just attended was called. They warned her friend to warn my daughter that they know where her fiance lives and the estate she normally went to, and that they were waiting for her (second daughter). Then for me, as for the threats, I have reported to the king and formally written that my life is in danger. I have formally written. I have the letter. I have also written a petition to the Inspector General of Police, I do not know what has come out of it.
Do you have implicit confidence in the police or the security agencies?
All I know is that when you say police, it covers from the Inspector General to the latest recruit. I do not believe that I can say that I have no confidence in the police, but I believe that the police team sent to investigate the so-called murder charge are heavily compromised. They are supposed to be Investigating Police Officers (IPO), but they act without reason. It was all on air when they came to Moni Pulo and destroyed the doors of Moni Pulo. We have them on video.
I do not know what I must do before they would know that those people’s intention is not only to kill but to destroy me and everything around me.
As I am, at least known by more than one or two persons in Nigeria, what is happening to the average man who knows nobody in Nigeria? I do not know. Because police received a petition from someone who had no facts, neither did he attach any fact to his petition, they moved from Abuja to come here to arrest. They have not even seen any dead body. They have not even confirmed that there is a dead person, but they came to arrest and break doors because they were obeying orders from the highest authority.
What exactly are you doing to bring the family together in the light of recent happenings?
As I have told you, the Lord spoke to me. And despite all these that I have talked about, I have called them. Dume has refused to come. He says he is the chief that should call a meeting. He wanted autopsy. Why would you want to do an autopsy on an 88-year-old man? The man that we all know had been sick and had so many pathologies in his body; any of them could have killed him. In fact, his doctor’s report I submitted directly to the head of CID in Nigeria. In his office, I gave all to him.
The medical report where his doctor (a white man) even wrote that it is a miracle that chief was still alive. In such a body, you want to tear him to pieces to do autopsy. What are we looking for? I protested to the IG, to all my family, my chief, all of them. They refused and said if I continued protesting, it would seem I knew something about it. I said I do not care, leave this man’s body alone, but they refused.
The Nigeria Police left all the crime in Nigeria; Abuja is burning, yet the Nigerian police went to Ghana to carry out an autopsy without my representation. I am his wife, married legally in court. Children that were born out of wedlock are the ones controlling, and they are saying they have the rights and I do not. In Nigeria, we have a constitution but I am not fighting any of these. I just want my husband to be buried. I am begging. I have pleaded with them. I have written him letters and he has published the letters. Now, whether he thinks my begging means he has something on me, it is laughable.
I am taking the path I am following so that there would be no shame or disgrace. As a mother, I am calling, ‘Come, let us put heads together.’ The world believes that we are fighting. You are a young man, I am already married and a widow; it is for your own benefit.
I did not suddenly wake up to take him to Ghana. The case in Ghana had to do with them trying to carry out an autopsy without me, where they will now manufacture strange reasons so that the Nigerian police will have reasons to hold me, charge me for murder and announce my name, then take over the company, Monipulo, which they have been trying to take over since 2002. The day I was incarcerated, the plan was that while I was in police custody, I would not even have access to one naira to send somebody to even get a lawyer for me. That was the plan. Very wicked plan. I am not bothered because they did not succeed.
All I am begging, let us bury this man. He deserves to be buried. He lived his life for his people. Even his will has been read, and in the will, he did not disown any child. He is such a good man. He did not disown all the children that took him to court four times to disgrace him, to put him in jail for criminal offence.
You mean his children took him to court while alive?
It is in the papers. I am sure if you check, you will see them. It is already written. The original court processes anybody can get, I have them. Everybody has them.
Did you think that chief knew this would happen before he died?
All I know is that the man lived a life where he did not want God to hold him responsible for anything, so he refused to disown his children. He refused to do anything that would destroy their future. Instead, in his will, all he said was that their children will continue to benefit from the company he has established, and that their children, not them, because he said he has given them their own entitlements. And, believing that maybe they would do something silly, he said if anybody goes to court, of course, automatically they are cut off. If anybody does not carry out his burial wishes, which he said must include me, I must play a part, unlike what they are propagating, if anybody does not follow that, the person is cut off from his will.
He said nobody should mourn him. He lived a full life and he even wrote a side letter in case any of them decide to go to court. It is all over. There is nothing we are arguing right now. There is no property we are even fighting for. All I am saying, let us bury this man according to his wishes.
He always wanted burial immediately after death, and I said it. When I said it, they started arguing it. We chose a date twice and they changed it until after the elections because Chief Dume was standing election. Election is over, come let us bury him. That is my cry. My arms can never be twisted because I care nothing for property. Wealth is in the person not in the things. God has made me wealthy. Wherever I stand, wealth will follow me. Wealth must multiply wherever I am.
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