Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Etinan yesterday ruled against the age-long traditional practice that denies female children the right to inherit their father’s property.
Justice Pius Idiong declared the practice as null and void while delivering judgment in a suit brought before the court by eight children of late Obong Patrick Joseph Noah of Edem Ekpat in Etinan local government area.
They had filed the suit against their aunt, Mrs. Gertrude Ekanem to stop her from inheriting the landed property belonging to her sister, Immaculata Noah, who died intestate and left neither husband nor child.
The case marked HET/3A/2019 between Mr. Michael Patrick Noah and seven others and Mrs. Gertrude Ekanem, originated from the Etinan District Court, which judgment the petitioners appealed to the Chief Magistrate’s Court and the High Court.
In their evidence, they contended that their aunt could not inherit her sister’s property located at 24, Iman Street, Etinan because she is a woman and had also been married off.
In his judgment, Justice Idiong described such practice as anachronistic, primitive and unconscionable, which should not exist in the 21st century society.
The Court held that any custom that denies one an inheritance on the grounds of sex, is not only unfair, but runs contrary to the fundamental objectives of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The judge contended that although courts are enjoined to apply, administer and give effect to the custom and tradition of the people of its area of jurisdiction, they do not have to enforce customs which are unreasonable, discriminatory and an affront to law.
He further held that the custom of the people of Edem Ekpat in particular and Etinan local government area in general, denying a woman the right to inherit intestate property of her parents or siblings, where the deceased died without a male child, debases such a woman and contravenes section 42 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
The Judge also disagreed with the village head of Edem Ekpat, Chief Emmanuel Okokon Eboh, who had testified as a witness that when a woman dies in Edem Ekpat without a child or husband, her property reverts to her family and not her sister, who has been married to another family.
The judge praised the trial District Court in Etinan for refusing to uphold such offensive custom and the appellate Chief Magistrate’s Court for upholding the decision of the lower court.
The judge declared that native laws discriminating against women, whether married or not, are nullity and unenforceable throughout Etinan local government area.
Justice Idiong dismissed the appeal with cost against the eight siblings, including two married sisters, who joined their brothers to deny their married aunt the right to inherit the landed property of her only sister.
