The final funeral rite of the late highlife legend Daddy Lumba will proceed on Saturday, December 13, 2025, as scheduled, after members of his maternal family failed to raise the GH¢2 million deposit required to enforce a High Court injunction.
The maternal family members — Obaapanin Afia Adomah, Robert and Georgina Gyamfi, Ernestina Fosuh, and Nana Afia Kobi — had earlier secured an interim injunction to halt the funeral.
However, they were unable to pay a GH¢2 million undertaking to the family head, Kofi Owusu, within the two-hour deadline set by the court.
Their failure to meet the financial requirement effectively nullified the injunction granted earlier on Friday, clearing the way for the funeral to go ahead.
Earlier on Friday, Justice Emmanuel Kofi Diaba had restrained Kofi Owusu from organising the final funeral rites of Daddy Lumba, scheduled for December 13, 2025.
The court also barred Transitions Funeral Home from releasing the body pending the final determination of who should lead the funeral arrangements.
In granting the interim injunction, the judge noted that affidavits before the court suggested the immediate family had been sidelined in the planning process. He stressed the need for due process, proper family involvement, and consultation between the family head and the immediate family.
The court ordered the family head to convene a stakeholder meeting within three weeks to agree on a new burial date and directed that all funds raised for the funeral be kept separate from the accounts of the Daddy Lumba Memorial Foundation.
Shortly after delivering the ruling, the court reconvened and issued a further directive. Justice Diaba ordered that if the applicants failed to deposit GH¢2 million by 2 p.m. on Friday to cover potential costs already incurred, Transitions Funeral Home should release the body, allowing the funeral to proceed as planned.
This directive was based on a 2024 Practice Direction governing injunctions seeking to restrain the burial of a deceased person in Ghana.
While Practice Directions do not carry the force of law, they serve as guiding protocols for judicial administration.
The directive references the landmark case Neequaye and Another v Okoe [1993–94] 1 GLR 538, which affirms that the custody of a deceased person rests with both the immediate and extended family, who are responsible for arranging a funeral befitting the deceased’s status and family dignity.
