Court Voids Ibom Inheritance Rule

An Akwa Ibom State High
Court sitting in Ikot Ekpene judicial division, has nullified the practice among Annang people where female children are denied their deceased parents’ inheritance.
The court presided over by Justice Ntong Ntong, said the practice was against good conscience and unconstitutional in the present day realities, declaring it null and void and of no effect.
On the other hand, the judge also declared that for the son to inherit the main building of his father and his personal effects to the exclusion of the female children in Annang tradition was repugnant to natural justice and good conscience.
The declaration is contained in a judgment delivered penultimate Wednesday in a 2014 suit filed by one Mrs. Joyce Obot (formerly known as Joyce Akpan) against her stepbrother, Idorenyin Akpan, as the respondent.
It was gathered that late Udo Akpan who hailed from Ikpe Ikot Akpan, Ikpe Annang in Ikot Ekpene local government area died without a valid will some years ago.
He was said to have married two wives who gave birth to six children.
The complainant, Mrs. Joyce Obot, is the eldest and only child from the first wife while her brother – the respondent, is the only male child among his mother’s five children, and the only male child of late Udo Akpan.
It was also gathered that shortly after his demise, the eldest daughter and her stepsister, Useneno Akpan from the second wife had applied for and obtained a letter of administration.
As administrators of their late father’s estate, it was learnt that Obot had caused the Adiasim/Ikpe Annang District Court to partition the assets left behind.
The main building was said to have been given to the only son (respondent) while the boys’ quarter went to the eldest daughter (plaintiff) in the final judgment of the District Court in suit No. 64/98.
It was gathered that the subsisting decision of the Customary Court was neither challenged nor set -aside by any higher court before an attempt by the respondent to deprive his elder sister of her inheritance on grounds that as a woman, she was not entitled to the boys’ quarter due to the long held tradition that she had been married out.