By Ade Oyeyemi
The Anambra State Government has commenced moves to prosecute individuals who prevent women and girls from inheriting property on the basis of their gender.
The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Tobechukwu Nweke, SAN, disclosed this in a letter addressed to the Nigeria Police Force, directing the police to investigate complaints involving alleged gender-based disinheritance.
Nweke said the police should forward the case files of investigated complaints to his office for further legal action.
According to him, reports of women and female children being denied access to properties belonging to their parents on the grounds of customary practices remain a concern despite previous judicial pronouncements against such discrimination.
The Attorney-General noted that the Supreme Court had ruled against customary practices that exclude women from inheritance, stressing that such practices could no longer be relied upon to deny women their property rights.
The state government said denying women or girls inheritance solely because of their gender constitutes an offence under Section 22 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law, 2017 of Anambra State.
The offence, according to the government, carries a possible prison sentence of up to four years.
Nweke said the Ministry of Justice had designated its Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit to handle the prosecution of persons found culpable, alongside cases involving other forms of domestic and sexual violence.
The letter read in part, “In light of the foregoing, you are kindly requested to ensure that your office thoroughly investigates all reported cases of gender-based disinheritance and that the case files are transmitted to this Ministry for further action.
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“To effectively combat this practice, this Ministry has designated the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit to handle the prosecution of offenders under the above-mentioned law, alongside other forms of domestic violence and sexual offences.”
The move follows longstanding Supreme Court decisions rejecting discriminatory customary inheritance practices, including the landmark Anekwe v Nweke decision, in which the court rejected a custom that denied a woman inheritance on the basis of her gender and lack of a male child.
