HUMAN RIGHT: Supreme Court Endorses Right of Female Child to Inherit Properties in Igboland.

SUPREME Court has on Friday voided the controversial Igbo law and custom, which forbids a female child from inheriting her late father’s estate, on the grounds that it is discriminatory and conflicts with the fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In its judgment over an appeal marked: SC.224/2004 filed by Mrs. Lois Chituru Ukeje  (wife of the Late Lazarus Ogbonna Ukeje) and their son, Enyinnaya Lazarus Ukeje against Mrs. Cladys Ada Ukeje (the deceased’s daughter), the apex court held that the practice is barbaric and above all, evidently in conflict with section 42 (1)(a) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution...

The daughter had sued the deceased’s wife and son before the Lagos High Court contending that as a legitimate child of her deceased father who died intestate in 1981, her rights to be a co-beneficiary of his landed properties was unparalleled and therefore sought to be included among the beneficiaries of their deceased’s father’s estate contrary to the native laws and custom in Igboland.

The Court of Appeal, Lagos to which Mrs. Lois Ukeje and Enyinnaya Ukeje appealed had upheld the decision of the trail court, leading to appeal to the Supreme Court.
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In its judgment on Friday July 1, 2016, the Supreme Court backed the Court of Appeal stating that it acted in order and responsibly by voiding the Igbo’s native law and custom that disinherit female children.

Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the lead judgment, categorically said that denial of female child of inheritance of his father’s estate is discriminatory, immoral and unjustifiable irrespective of history surrounding the birth.

“No matter the circumstances of the birth of a female child, such a child is entitled to an inheritance from her later father’s estate.

“Consequently, the Igbo customary law, which disentitles a female child from partaking in the sharing of her deceased father’s estate is breach of Section 42(1) and (2) of the Constitution, a fundamental rights provision guaranteed to every Nigerian.

“The said discriminatory customary law is void as it conflicts with Section 42(1) and (2) of the Constitution. In the light of all that I have been saying, the appeal is dismissed. In the spirit of reconciliation, parties to bear their own costs,” Justice Rhodes-Vivour said.

Concurring, Justices Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, Claral Bata Ogunbiyi, Kumai Bayang Aka’ahs and  John Inyang Okoro, who were part of the panel that heard the appeal, aligned with the lead judgment.‎

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