We Are Not Intimidated By Your Threats- Dan Obuekwe’s Widow Replies Lulu-Briggs

A human rights advocacy group has said that no amount of threat and intimidation will stop the administrators of the estate of Dan Obuekwe and his widow from seeking justice against Chief Benson Lulu-Briggs and his oil company, Moni Pulo Limited.

The group under the aegis of  Rights Defenders Network Africa, RDNA, in a statement said they have more damaging evidence to prove the injustice meted out on Obuekwe’s widow by  Mrs. Lulu-Briggs by fraudulent conversion of company shares,” in which they were shareholders.

While urging the new chairman of the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC Mr. Bawa Abdulrasheed, to ensure transparency, fairness, and justice in handling the case, the group in a statement signed by Ahmed Usman, chairman of the group noted that there is an avalanche of available documents to establish their claims against Lulu-Briggs.

The group stated that its response was in reaction to some publications sponsored by Lulu-Briggs threatening legal actions against the estate of Dan Obuekwe, his widow, and others for calling for justice.

“You cannot beat a child and at the same time tell that child not to cry. Here is a poor widow calling for Justice and you are threatening her because you have all it takes to intimidate her?”, the group questioned.

Usman further disclosed that the passing away of the original beneficial owners of OPL 240/ OML 114  is sufficient proof of the transient nature of this life adding; “no matter the wealth and comfort being enjoyed by Pastor Seinye Lulu-Briggs, it would eventually pass away as the life of this world is a temporary enjoyment. It is the good works and endearing legacy that would count before our Creator

” We are a group that seeks justice for the helpless and we have been watching this whole saga for some time. As a law-abiding body, we are calling on the anti-graft agency, the minister of justice to ensure that justice is served.

“Documents can not lie. We have all the evidence to prove our claims. We are waiting for the right time to bring them out. All we want is for the EFCC to launch a fresh investigation into this matter.

“The way and manner the investigation was conducted under its erstwhile leadership is nothing short of a hatchet job to cover up and pervert the cause of justice.

We say this with all sense of modesty considering the plethora of documents and correspondences available to us. We know the officers who refused to be compromised in the whole saga and their departments and assure them of victory and comfort from the All comforter.

“As for those who have conspired to deprive a widow and her dependant children of her entitlement, their place is reserved in the unending blazing fire if they do not change their ways.

“It is absolutely laughable that the handlers of Moni Pulo Limited feel that empty rebuttal is enough to douse this raging fire.

Their kindergarten lawyers imagine that the civil case instituted in the Federal High Court Calabar is similar to a criminal investigation bothering on tax evasion, forgery, fraud, and criminal breach of trust to render it sub judis?

It is already an established law that facts of the same case leading to both civil and criminal cases can be prosecuted concurrently. In other words, the investigation and prosecution of a crime by the commission is not mutually exclusive in the filing of a civil suit by the widow of Mr Dan Obuekwe.

“The victim has filed a civil suit and there’s no law in Nigeria that bars the commission from investigating and or prosecuting the offender because the victim has filed a civil claim”, the statement read in part.

On the allegations that they were speaking against the commission it seeks justice from, the group said,

“The widow of Dan Obuekwe is no doubt dissatisfied with the way the investigation has been conducted hitherto does not mean the EFCC is incapable of a thorough, fair and balanced investigation.

On the contrary, we believe in the unflinching investigative prowess of the new Chairman based on his track record and background. As the saying goes ” a fish rots from the head down”. The tenacity and probity of the new Chairman is what we call into action now.

“It is as clear as daylight that pastor Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs has assumed the role of an alter ego of the company and kept the real owners at bay while committing various economic crimes including but not limited to tax evasion, none payment of statutory fees like the 3% of the total budget of the company required by the NDDC Act to be paid into the NDDC account and none remittance of taxes to FIRS.

These are documented facts based on the investigation but are yet to be acted upon.

“We would wait for her in the court where men are judges, and the court of the most conclusive of all judges”, the statement added.

It could be recalled that the estate of Dan Obuekwe had is in a petition dated March 1, 2021,  accused Chief Lulu-Briggs and her company of “fraudulent conversion of company shares,” in which they were shareholders.

They accused (Mrs.Seinye Lulu-Briggs) of making illegal changes in the company, making herself, her daughter before her marriage to Chief Benson Lulu-Briggs, and Lulu-Briggs foundation shareholders and directors in the company excluding  Mr. Obuekwe and his widow who were the initial shareholders of the company.

The complainants chronicled a series of petitions they had lodged against the suspects: Chief Benson Lulu-Briggs, Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs, Dumo Lulu-Briggs and Moni Pulo Limited between 2007 and 2016.

They alleged that they were the initial subscribers and director of Moni Pulo Limited, where he was allotted 150,000 ordinary shares of the company, which represented 30 percent of the holding of the company.

They accused the company and O.B. Lulu-Briggs and his son, Dumo Lulu-Briggs of forging the company resolution and reduced his shareholding in the company to 100, 000 shares thus denying him his share of the profit of the company or payment of dividends as rightly entitled by virtue of his shareholding in the company.

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Obuekwe further alleged reckless and fraudulent management of the company by the Lulu-Briggs family, particularly; Mrs. Seinye Lulu-Briggs where statutory taxes were not paid to the Federal Government and its agencies.

Consequently, the petitioner urged the anti-corruption agency, ” To investigate and prosecute any of the suspects responsible for the forgeries and tax evasion.

“Facilitate the payment of the sum of $850 million USD indebted to him by Moni Pulo Limited.

“To verify the actual bona fide owners of OPL 230 from the Department of Petroleum Resources.

“To investigate and determine the reason(s) why he was criminally shut out in the sharing of profit from 1996 till date.”

They further claimed that the ongoing investigation over the years has been shrouded in controversy with cloak and dagger operatives.