The Anambra State Government has commenced moves to protect women’s right to inherit property and prosecute individuals who deny them inheritance because of their gender.
The state Attorney General, Mr Tobechukwu Nweke, has directed the Nigeria Police to investigate complaints of gender-based disinheritance and forward case files to his office for prosecution.
This was disclosed in a statement by Ejimofor Opara, Special Assistant on Media to the Anambra State Governor, who quoted a letter written by the Attorney General to the police.
According to Nweke, denying women and girls their right to inherit property because they are female constitutes an offence under Section 22 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law, 2017 of Anambra State.
The offence is punishable by up to four years’ imprisonment.
The Attorney General directed the police to thoroughly investigate reported cases and transmit the case files to his ministry for further action.
He also disclosed that the ministry’s Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Unit had been designated to prosecute offenders under the law, alongside cases involving domestic violence and sexual offences.
The move follows longstanding concerns over discriminatory inheritance practices in parts of the South-East, despite a Supreme Court ruling declaring the denial of women’s inheritance rights unlawful.
