Court hears testimony of Daddy Lumba's sister disputing claim of marriage between him and Odo Broni

A High Court in Kumasi has heard testimony challenging claims that Ghanaian highlife legend Charles Kwadwo Fosuh—popularly known as Daddy Lumba—was married to Priscilla Ofori, widely referred to as Odo Broni, despite their decades-long relationship and six children together.

The evidence was given by the musician’s elder sister, Ernestina Fosuh, also known as Akosua Brempomaah, who insisted that while the relationship was well-known within the family, it never culminated in marriage.

The testimony forms part of a larger dispute brought by Akosua Serwaa Fosuh, who maintains she is the late musician’s only lawful spouse. She is asking the court to formally declare her the surviving widow and to restrain Odo Broni from presenting herself as Lumba’s wife.

Serwaa says she married the musician under both customary and civil law in 1991 and 2004 respectively—ceremonies Brempomaah told the court she personally witnessed.

Taking the stand before Justice Dorinda Smith-Arthur, Brempomaah testified that her brother often confided in her and had openly spoken about his relationship with Odo Broni, which began many years ago and produced six children.

However, she said no marriage rites were ever performed.

She added that one of the children— the third-born—was named after her, explaining that the musician had a tradition of naming all his third-born children in her honour.

Brempomaah told the court that Lumba had asked his wife, Serwaa, not to travel frequently from Germany because of high airfare costs and a €50,000 loan he was servicing.

Defence counsel Dominic Kwadwo Osei challenged this, arguing no such loan existed and pointing out inconsistencies in the plaintiff’s earlier filings, which referenced a €100,000 loan. Brempomaah insisted she was only relaying what her brother had told her and that the documentation on her phone was written in Dutch.

The court session grew tense when defence lawyers confronted Brempomaah with video and audio recordings contradicting her assertion that she had never acknowledged Odo Broni as a sister-in-law.

One video—aired on DL FM—captured Odo Broni describing Brempomaah as her “sister-in-law.” An accompanying audio clip, which Brempomaah admitted “sounds like” her voice, featured her calling Odo Broni her Akumaa—a Twi term for sister-in-law.

Both pieces of evidence were admitted without objection.

Brempomaah told the court that in the period when the musician returned to Ghana with a back injury, it was Odo Broni who lived with and cared for him. She said she only provided additional support.

Defence counsel later challenged her account of the hospital where Lumba received treatment, noting that he underwent surgery at FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital in Pantang in 2013, not at a Tantra Hills facility as she claimed.

The witness also dismissed suggestions that another woman performed in-law rites when their mother died, insisting the rituals were carried out by Serwaa. She acknowledged that a family acquaintance, Theresah Abrebrese, only assisted out of long-standing friendship.

She further testified that Daddy Lumba attended the funeral of Serwaa’s mother “in his black cloth,” reinforcing, in her view, the legitimacy of that marriage.

The court adjourned after a lengthy cross-examination. Brempomaah is expected to return to the witness box when the trial continues on Wednesday.