Court upholds female property inheritance in Imo
An Imo State High Court sitting in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area presided by Justice Ijeoma Agugua has declared that a woman is entitled by law to inherit her father’s estate.
The judgment was recently delivered in favour of Mrs. Regina Ihemadu (Nee Nwimo) who is the only surviving child of her late father, Mr. Imo Ebiringa of Umuelagwa Onitcha in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
The court also slammed the sum of N7 million against Mrs. Ihemadu’s uncles for sharing her father’s estate to themselves soon after her father’s death and without her consent.
Reacting to the judgment, Barr. Iwuala said that the judgment is very apt and flows from the constitutional right against discrimination on sex stating that the judgment is only a restatement of the earlier judgment of the Supreme Court in the celebrated Ukeje case.
“With this, it is now clear that the age-long custom of disinheriting female children (both married and unmarried) from sharing in their father’s property and estate is now not only null and void, but unconstitutional.