High Court injuncts Daddy Lumba Celebration of Life

The High Court in Accra has restrained Akosua Serwaa Fosuh, Nana Yaw Akosah also known as Papa Shee, and two others from holding a planned “Celebration of Life” event in honour of the late highlife icon Charles Kwadwo Fosuh, popularly known as Daddy Lumba, pending the final determination of a suit before the court.

The ruling was delivered on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, by Her Ladyship Justice Halimah El-Alawa Abdul-Baasit in Suit No. GJ/0943/2025, in a case brought by Abusua-Panin Kofi Owusu against Akosua Serwaah Fosuh, Robert Gyamfi alias Wofa Yaw Poku, Ernestina Fosuh, and Nana Yaw Akosah alias Papa Shee.

Mr Owusu, who says he is the head of the Ekuana Royal Family of Parkoso and Nsuta, is asking the court to declare that his family has the sole authority under Akan customary law to organise, supervise and approve the burial and funeral rites of the late musician. 

He also wants the court to declare that the funeral held on 13 December 2025 constituted the final and valid funeral rites of Daddy Lumba, and that the proposed event scheduled for 28 and 29 March 2026 was unlawful and unauthorised.

In support of his injunction application, the plaintiff argued that the public announcement of another event in honour of the late musician had been made without the consent, approval or authority of the royal family and in disregard of Akan customary law. 

He maintained that under that custom, the right and duty to organise the funeral rites of a deceased family member rest exclusively in the larger family led by the head of family.

The defendants opposed the application, insisting that the planned programme was not a second funeral but a commemorative event intended to celebrate Daddy Lumba’s life, works and legacy. They argued that no law, custom or tradition barred the immediate family of the deceased from setting aside a day to remember him, and further contended that the application did not meet the threshold for an interlocutory injunction.

In her ruling, Justice Abdul-Baasit said the court was required to determine whether the defendants could be restrained from organising the ceremony while the substantive issues were yet to be tried. She noted that the law on interlocutory injunctions required the court to consider whether there was a serious question to be tried, whether the status quo ought to be preserved, where the balance of convenience lay, and whether damages would be an adequate remedy.

The judge found that the plaintiff had raised serious questions for trial, particularly over the customary law rights being asserted in relation to the deceased’s estate and funeral rites. The court also observed that no administrators had been appointed for the estate and that there was no will in evidence or one admitted to probate, meaning the legal and customary questions remained live and substantial.

On the balance of convenience, the court held that the proposed “Celebration of Life” was not a mandatory customary or legal event and could be held on another date if the defendants eventually succeeded at trial. By contrast, the plaintiff had argued that allowing the event to proceed would cause spiritual distress and expose the authority of the head of family and the royal family to public ridicule, harm the court considered incapable of easy monetary compensation.

The court therefore granted the application and restrained the defendants, their agents, assigns, privies or anyone claiming through them from holding any event in relation to Daddy Lumba until the final determination of the suit.

Justice Abdul-Baasit, however, ordered the plaintiff to give an undertaking to pay damages if it later turns out that he was not entitled to the injunction. She also directed the defendants to file their statements of defence within seven days, with all pleadings to be settled within fourteen days. The case has been adjourned to 23 April 2026 for the hearing of the application for directions.