By Wilson Adekumola
The Benue State Government has enacted a bill to establish the Benue State Widows Commission and to abolish unhealthy practices against widows and punish offenders for related purposes
The Governor of the State, Samuel Ortom, stressed that if the bill is passed by the State House of Assembly and signed into law it would stop the injurious practices among the people and become a point of reference and other parts of the country may tow the path.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the governor of the state, Terver Akase made this disclosure in a statement made available to journalists in Makurdi on Saturday.
Akase said the decision of the Ortom administration to enact the law was borne out of the fact that there are several ethnic groups in the state with diverse cultural norms and practices which have adverse effects on widows upon the death of their husbands.
According to the statement, “These include but are not limited to disinheritance from the assets of a deceased husband, banishment from a late husband’s home, being forced to marry a relation of the deceased husband, etc.
“Benue State Council viewed that in some cases, a widow is likened to a property of the deceased to be inherited by his relations.
“Most often, such widows have children for the deceased and have the task of nurturing the children without any assistance from the relations of the deceased. In some instances, some are denied their fundamental rights enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
“It is in face of such a helpless situation of widows that the Ortom administration has initiated the bill in order to assuage the position of widows as regards inheritance of their late husbands’ assets and to protect and guarantee their fundamental rights as well as obviate the obnoxious cultural practices which deny them the right of inheriting their late husbands’ property amongst others”.
