The Women Aid Collective (WACOL) has called for urgent action by governments, traditional institutions and law enforcement agencies to end discriminatory practices denying Nigerian women and girls their rights to inherit land, homes and other family properties.
WACOL’s Founding Executive Director, Prof. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, SAN, made the call at a press conference at the organisation’s office in Enugu to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary.
Ezeilo said that despite landmark Supreme Court judgments invalidating discriminatory customs against women’s inheritance, there remained a wide gap between the law and its enforcement, particularly in rural communities. She described the situation as “a disconnect between the law in the books and the law in action.”
She said the Southeast was particularly affected by discriminatory inheritance practices, which often left women economically vulnerable and exposed to violence, poverty and homelessness.
“The point I’m making is that the Southeast is worse off, and we need to take this seriously, because it contributes to violence, and not just violence, to extreme poverty of women and children deprived of inheritance that could be a lifeline,” she said.
Ezeilo explained that land remained a critical economic asset, stressing that denying women access to land, economic trees and farms deprived them of the means of production and the opportunity to create wealth.
“Land is an important means of assets, assets to production,” she said, adding that denying women land or farms could severely undermine their economic independence.
She disclosed that WACOL had documented more than 3,000 cases of women being disinherited, including more than 120 cases in 2026 alone, ranging from widows being thrown out of their matrimonial homes to daughters being denied their fathers’ properties because of their gender.
Giving examples, WACOL cited the case of an Eha-Amufu Enugu State woman whose uncles allegedly attempted to demolish her father’s house, which she had built and seize the land on the grounds that women could not inherit their fathers’ property under local tradition. Ezeilo said such practices showed how customs were being used to deny women security and dignity.
It also cited the case of Mrs Ekwutosi Ezeonyekwere, a widow from Umuchu in Anambra State, whose husband’s family allegedly locked her out of his shops, sold his land without her consent and subjected her to what WACOL described as a “posthumous divorce.”
Another case involved Mrs Nebo from Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, who was allegedly locked out of her family home by her stepson, while her late husband’s ATM card was seized. WACOL said it subsequently secured a court injunction on her behalf.
Ezeilo also drew attention to the case of Miss Ogechukwu Ike from Umungwuotowo Village in Obe-Agbor, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, who allegedly faced assault, abduction and forced institutionalisation following a dispute over inheritance rights.
She said the cases demonstrated that women continued to face serious violations while attempting to assert rights already recognised by law.
The legal scholar said such cases were not merely family or cultural disputes, noting that Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
She said, “Women should enjoy their full rights. Women should enjoy their rights as human beings. They should enjoy their rights as protected in the Constitution.”
She cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Ukeje v. Ukeje, which invalidated the Igbo customary law excluding female children from inheriting their father’s estate, as well as Anekwe v. Nweke and Mojekwu v. Mojekwu, which rejected discriminatory customary practices against women.
Ezeilo, however, said judicial pronouncements had not automatically translated into compliance at the community level, especially because many people in rural areas remained unaware of the decisions or were reluctant to abandon longstanding customs.
“Even when they are aware of the judgment, they are so reluctant, and they are holding the national key to customs and their practices and customary laws,” she said.
She therefore called on the Federal Government to enact a comprehensive national law on women’s inheritance rights, while urging state governments, traditional rulers and community leaders to abolish discriminatory customs and ensure their enforcement.
Ezeilo also urged law enforcement agencies to stop treating disinheritance, forced eviction and associated violence as family matters, insisting that perpetrators should be investigated and prosecuted, while courts should expedite inheritance and gender-based violence cases. She said WACOL would continue to provide legal assistance to women and vulnerable persons whose rights had been violated.
“At 66, Nigerian women should work, tie their shoulders and have equal rights to live, for inheritance, to land, to housing, to everything that is due to them as full citizens of Nigeria, in a democratic state of Nigeria,” she said, stressing that “progress for women is progress for Nigerian men.” Africans& Diaspora
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
