The Akwa Ibom State High Court in Uyo has upheld the rights of females to inherit their father’s property.

The court ruled in favor of the nieces of Mr Sampson Silas Udoh, who had previously denied his late brother’s daughters their rightful inheritance.

In a verdict delivered by Justice Ntong Ntong, Udoh, a resident of Itiam Etoi in Uyo Local Government Area, was ordered to pay N20 million to his two nieces for violating their fundamental rights and obstructing their inheritance of their father’s property.

The lawsuit was initiated on August 16, 2022, and it involved respondents Mrs Bakabasi Victor James and Miss Ndantiabasi Isaac Silas.

Mr Williams Ubetem, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) attached to the State Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, and the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State Command, were also part of the proceedings.

Justice Ntong strongly criticized the actions of the applicant, describing them as “obnoxious and repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good conscience.” He further emphasized that the maltreatment faced by the nieces was “opprobrium, offensive, and unconstitutional.”

The court ruled “The main contention of the applicant is that his nieces, being female children of his late elder brother, Mr Isaac Silas Udoh, should not inherit their father’s property because they are women.

“The respondents said their father built his own house on his own land between 1976 and 1980, which they lived in from birth till date without any problem until they attempted to appropriate the inheritance and their uncle unleashed mayhem on them.

The judge emphasized that it was crucial for paramount rulers, clan heads, village heads, and community leaders in Akwa Ibom State to recognize and accept that “female children have an equal stake with their male counterparts to inherit their parents’ properties.

“The applicant cannot be allowed to take advantage of the vulnerability of his nieces just because they were born girls and women into their family.

From the totality of credible evidence before the Court, the Police and other respondents did not and are not likely to encroach on or infringe upon the rights of the applicant.

“Instead, it was the applicant that infringed upon the fundamental rights of his nieces with impunity, which cannot be allowed to stand.

“The application for the enforcement of the applicant’s fundamental rights has failed woefully in its entirety and is dismissed with a cost of a total sum of twenty million, one hundred thousand naira payable to the 1st and 2nd respondents at ten million, fifty thousand naira each,” the court ruled