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BY HIGH CHIEF ABIOLA OGUNDOKUN
Over the weekend, my attention was called to a piece written by one Iyene Douglas using a nondescript website, Flashpointnews.com. The writer of this balderdash has not only shown that he knows nothing about the subject he is writing about, but has also displayed his inadequacies. Who is this so called Iyene Douglas? A search on him revealed an impersonal individual employed to do a dirty job for Dumo Lulu-Briggs, the second son of my late friend and confidant, High Chief Olu Benson Lulu-Briggs, over a plate of porridge. Douglas, I have confirmed, was on the media team of Dumo’s failed gubernatorial odyssey. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have dignified such insignificant fellow with a response, but it is imperative for me to set the records straight.
The hack writer called me a stranger. Am I a stranger to the Lulu-Briggs family? Do you call a 40-year relationship a strange one? It is quite obvious that the so called Douglas is either too young or desperate to please his paymaster, for him not to be aware who Abiola Ogundokun is. My 40-year relationship with High Chief Lulu-Briggs does not only qualify me to be close to all his family members, but has also exposed me to the culture and tradition of the great Kalabari Kingdom. Just like I told those misled factional chiefs in my last publication over this issue in some national dailies, I will restate that on September 7, 2018, I was a special guest of the Abonnema people with the entire traditional council headed by the highly revered Amanayabo of Kalabari Kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Prof. J.T.J Princewill Amachree and his Chiefs, assembled to host me to a warm reception during my visit to the Royal Court of the monarch. During that auspicious visit, the Amanayabo expressed his joy and acknowledged my show of love with these stirring words: “The Obanla is a true friend of the Lulu-Briggs who has stood the test of time. I appreciate this visit and must let you know that Olu Benson is my confidant, illustrious Chief and cousin. O.B Lulu-Briggs is ready to do anything to defend his community. He is in the class of those who can pay any supreme sacrifice for his people. That is why, nothing is too much to do in his honour. You have said good things about our illustrious son. May you be blessed.” Is this not enough testimony?
This errand boy called me a stranger! Yet, I was one of the few who was by Late Lulu-Briggs’ bedside at the London Hospital when he almost gave up the ghost. We were in tears, scared that we were going to lose him, only for God to breathe back life into him. He was in coma, kept in intensive care for days, while his wife was in perpetual tears, fasting day and night. Even she had to be excused from the hospital at some point, before her husband was miraculously brought back to life, that time. I am a living witness to this history.
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He also claimed in his jaundiced article that I did not seek for peace and I have been judgmental like someone that seems to be taking sides. It is quite saddening that his paymaster has not told him the truth about my several attempts to broker peace. Is he aware that I once involved the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had to invite Dumo to Abeokuta and advised him to allow peace to reign? I have been known for ages as an anti-corruption crusader who always stands by the truth and fights injustice in whatever disguise.
Claiming that my reason for standing by Seinye is for material gains is not only insulting but absurd. I am not known to be a poor man. Without sounding immodest, for nearly six decades, I have been recognised as a renowned philanthropist in my town Iwo, my state and Nigeria as a whole. Even when the late O.B Lulu-Briggs was alive, our relationship was not based on pecuniary gains. So, is it the wife, Seinye that I will now be supporting for material or financial gains? If your paymaster would be honest, he would attest to these facts. It’s a common saying that every man has a price, but even Dumo would attest to the fact that I cannot be bought. My INTEGRITY is my watchword and a cherished capital. To the glory of God, I am not an hungry man.
In the article, DougIas wrote: “As far as we are concerned, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs has always respected and revered his Father’s wife, taken her as a mother and always prioritized anything that concerns her. Even this is public knowledge. Dumo is not a man that pretends; he is straightforward in his modus operandi, he tells and act it the way he feels. Even at occasions and quite oblivious of public observers, you will see him accord her that matriarchal respect, with heartfelt dignity and honour to her; that is how much he loves his father and his father knows it...” What a drivel!!! This is strange and laughable as current evidences prove otherwise.
Douglas went on in his article to claim that Dumo loves his step-mom so much to the extent of revering her both in public and private, yet he (Dumo) wrote a damning petition to the Nigeria Police claiming that the woman (Seinye) killed her husband. What manner of love has he for her? It is heart-wrenching and ghastly that Dumo, who claimed to be a trained lawyer, could display sheer ignorance by wickedly, maliciously and falsely accusing the woman of such grievous allegations that could earn her a death sentence. This is the same woman that stood by Dumo both morally and financially when he needed such most during his failed governorship ambition.
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Isn’t it funny that Dumo and his ilk, who initially complained about the circumstances surrounding his father’s death, could later shift his narratives to the location of his death? He claimed that his father was kept unconscious for almost six hours inside a chartered plane at the Port Harcourt International Airport. Was Dumo present at the scene and who was his time keeper? Maybe he knows more about his father’s death than what he wants the world to know, having been on such mission for more than 25 years. It is on record, how he dragged his father to different courts in Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria, as well as Houston Texas in the US and London, UK, in failed bids to make him surrender his company estate to him.
Douglas described Dumo as an ebullient character and “a man whom we all know as a fine gentleman, humility filled character, a man that has taken to the legacy of his father’s philanthropical nature and a description only fitted in the capacity of the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon’s lineage, with Dumo at a flourishing stance, as it was with King Solomon. However, such an amiable, calm, cerebral and articulate character like Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, can never be maligned by a man of Chief Abiola Ogundokun’s caliber…” This is funny! Douglas no doubt, has exhibited that he is suffering both mental and physical famine! Or how could he have equated Dumo, a chameleon politician who abhors symbiotic relationship expected of someone aspiring for public office with such great Biblical heroes?
If clinically psychoanalysed, Dumo, could be dealing with a complex issue. Or how could a son traumatize his biological father to the extent of taking him to court three times, seeking an order to put him to jail and prodigiously clamouring for the inheritance of his estate while he was alive? This is unAfrican and his actions could be mistaken for that of a bastard.
Despite being the son of his father, it is disheartening that Dumo is not toeing the line of peaceful and godly character as his late dad, Late O.B Lulu-Briggs.
Although not a pleasant experience, I have been absorbing the insults, name-callings and sponsored attacks against my person by Dumo and his co-travellers for standing by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and for standing in for my Golden friend that mandated me to stay firmly behind his wife, who he told me was facing so much hatred. But like my friend did before he left, I will also forgive Dumo for all he has done against my person. And I will also hope he receives such forgiveness from his stepmom, Seinye, who he had not only maligned so badly, but also visited with much hatred.
-High Chief Ogundokun is the Obanla of Iwoland, Ajagunpote of the Source, Ile-Ife, Apesin of Erin Osunland, Seriki of Ibaland, Jagun of Ajagunlase Kingdom, Aare Ago of Iwo Oke Kingdom, Basorun Musulumi of Iwoland.