In this concluding part of the investigation, JULIANA FRANCIS and ANGELA NKWO-AKPOLU spotlight the modern forms of harmful widowhood practices, revealing how custodians of tradition continue to defy the law despite landmark judicial rulings.
The report by the female journalists also captures growing calls from experts for the creation of a dedicated agency to protect widows.
On October 18, the Anambra State branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) revealed that most cases it handles involve inheritance deprivation, land disputes, and the inhuman treatment of widows. FIDA said it mediates between widows and offenders, sometimes through traditional rulers, and represents indigent widows in court when necessary. The group also petitions the police in criminal cases and follows up on investigations, but clarifies that it does not file criminal charges directly, instead collaborating with law enforcement to ensure justice.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request was sent to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has played a key role in mediating widowhood-related conflicts, especially in the South East. Responding to the FoI request on reported cases, prosecutions, and convictions of harmful widowhood practices between 2020 and 2025, the NHRC clarified that it does not have prosecutorial powers under the National Human Rights Commission (Amendment) Act, 2010.
NHRC said that matters requiring prosecution are referred to relevant agencies like the Ministry of Justice, hence it has no data on prosecutions or convictions for harmful widowhood practices. The Commission said “widowhood” is not a separate category in its database. Such cases, it said, fall under Harmful Cultural Practices, Gender-Based Discrimination, Domestic Violence, and Inheritance. It explained that it was refining its database for more specific categorisation, with 2025 data still being processed.
The NHRC highlighted its interventions, including public hearings on SGBV, investigations, community sensitisation, human rights education, and collaboration with traditional leaders, civil society, and legal aid groups to support widows. It also participates annually in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to raise awareness about discriminatory customs affecting widows.
The Commission cited entrenched cultural beliefs and low awareness of women’s rights, especially in rural areas, as major challenges but reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality and the protection of widows’ rights in Nigeria.
Data from the NHRC (2020-2024) showed that it recorded cases of domestic violence, gender-based discrimination, harmful cultural practices, and inheritance-related disputes over four years. Domestic violence has been one of the most reported issues every year. It jumped sharply in 2023, with over 552,000 cases, compared to 107,000 in 2020.
This means reports of domestic violence increased more than five times within the period.
Also, Gender-Based Discrimination cases rose and fell unevenly. From just over 3,000 in 2020, they surged to 487,000 in 2023, a major spike that year.
On Harmful Cultural Practices, the number of reported cases was 2,600 in 2020, rising to 26,000 in 2021, and then 6,700 in 2023. The figures show that harmful traditional practices remain a persistent but fluctuating problem.
On Inheritance Disputes, the Commission recorded between 18,000 and 72,000 cases yearly, peaking in 2023. Between 2020 and 2024, 2023 recorded the highest number of cases across all categories, suggesting either a rise in human rights violations or better reporting systems.
Landmark Cases That Invalidate Cultural Norms
In the cases of Anekwe v. Nweke and Ukeje v. Ukeje (2013), the Supreme Court has consistently condemned the application of customary laws that deny women the right to inherit property.
In Onyibor Anekwe & Anor v. Maria Nweke, the Court struck down the Awka customary law that restricted inheritance to the first male child, declaring it repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good conscience.
Similarly, in Ukeje v. Ukeje, the Court held that any custom preventing women from inheriting property in cases of intestate succession is unconstitutional, as it violates Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on sex.
According to escr-net.org: “The Supreme Court of Nigeria found that any custom that denies women, particularly widows, their inheritance, is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience and is condemned by the Supreme Court.”
In the 2008 case of Ojukwu v. Ojukwu, involving Bianca Ojukwu, widow of the late Biafran leader, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, the courts were called upon to address attempts by relatives of the deceased to evict her and her children from the family home. The relatives relied on customary inheritance practices that favoured only male relatives.
The court, however, ruled in Bianca’s favour, holding that a widow cannot be regarded as a stranger in her matrimonial home. It emphasised that evicting or harassing a widow violates her dignity, which is protected under Section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
Despite such precedents, decided even before the enactment of the VAPP Act 2015, a significant gap remains between legal protections on paper and their actual implementation in practice.
New Faces of Harmful Widowhood Practices
The former State Coordinator, Violence against Persons Prohibition Law Implementation Committee, Anambra State, Hope Okoye, said: “When we talk about widows, we do not separate or single them out just because they are women. When we talk about protecting the rights of women, we group them under vulnerable women. But I must tell you, almost every woman is vulnerable, whether a female child or an adult. Every female is vulnerable from all angles: the family, the community, the society at large, even in institutions, corporate or public, women are vulnerable.”
According to Okoye, widows can be grouped as one of the vulnerable groups among women. She said: “ When we look at the widows we are fighting for, we fight to protect their rights and dignity. These are people who, before this time, were raising their children and doing things together with their husbands. In Igbo culture, there is a preference for males. Because of this, women are generally impoverished and disinherited by so-called culture; women do not have inheritance rights.”
Okoye explained that despite laws like the VAPP Act of Anambra State and Supreme Court rulings, women still struggle to inherit from their fathers. These rights often demand costly legal battles, unlike male children, who inherit effortlessly. She highlighted the irony that even a non-biological male child, through adoption or other means, can inherit, while a biological daughter is denied.
“A girl with her parents’ blood is often excluded. Once she marries, she’s considered no longer part of the family and may even be chased out,” Okoye said. She added that widows face double disinheritance: first from their fathers, then from their husbands. The husband’s family frequently claims all property, including assets the woman brought into the marriage or acquired jointly, leaving her with nothing.
Okoye stated: “This is one of the major issues widows face, harmful widowhood practices in Igbo land. These practices vary from community to community.”
She disclosed that recently, someone told her about a woman in her community who lost her husband. The husband was involved in diabolical practices and masquerade rituals. The wife knew she could not handle the aftermath and tried to run away. But other women in the community intercepted her and brought her back.
Okoye recounted: “They forced her to stay in the room where her dead husband lay. She wasn’t allowed to go out, sleep, or eat outside that room until the burial. After the burial, the Daughters Of The Land forced her to shave her hair, whether she wanted to or not.”
Another recent case, said Okoye, which went viral and is currently in court, is about a lady who lost her husband and returned to her father’s house. The lady is a caterer and was trying to survive and care for her daughter. Her brothers, however, used a masquerade to chase her out of the community, labelling her a witch, simply because they did not want her in her father’s house.
Okoye further shared another incident involving a widow with a son. Her brothers-in-law labelled her a witch after someone in the extended family died. They claimed she caused the death and forced her to drink water used to wash the corpse. This happened just two or three years ago. The case is ongoing in the Special Gender-Based Violence Court in Awka, Okoye narrated.
Okoye said: “They chased her out of the house and beat up her son when he tried to defend her. They threatened to kill him. Her brother had to rescue her and take her back to her father’s house. The matter is still ongoing.”
Okoye shared another incident: A widow with children, including sons, faced hostility from her late husband’s family, who refused to bury him. She sought help from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which intervened. With community support, the burial was peacefully conducted.
However, while she was away after the funeral, her in-laws, both brother and sister-in-law, packed all her belongings and dumped them outside the compound, along the street. She returned to find her property soaked in the rain, having been forcibly evicted from her husband’s home.
An outraged Okoye asked: “Now, where was she supposed to go? Back to her father’s house, where she didn’t even have a room? Where she has no rights?”
She condemned the practice of denying widows inheritance, noting that once the husband dies, his family often claims everything, even what belonged to the woman, and forces her out. “These are some of the harsh realities widows face,” she said.
Okoye further revealed that a systematic study of these vulnerable widows has revealed that many also face sexual violence. Even when they refuse to remarry and choose to stay in their husband’s home to care for their children, they are still targeted.
Okoye added: “Some perpetrators jump walls at night to rape these women and then shame them publicly. These are just some of the things widows face in Anambra State. I’m sharing what I’ve witnessed while doing this work.”
According to her, all these issues revolve around impoverishment. She explained that sometimes, to access what belongs to their late husbands, widows are pressured by the husband’s brothers, either directly or indirectly.
Directly, they may insist on performing rituals to claim the widow as their wife, while indirectly, she may continue answering her husband’s name, but the brother-in-law still wants to sleep with her and have children with her. “That becomes the only condition for her to access her husband’s property,” said the former coordinator.
She shared another heartbreaking story: “I know of a young lady from Enugu State. She was married to a wealthy man and even owned a car while he was alive. Sadly, she had four daughters. One of her in-laws, a man with a physical deformity, had been pursuing her romantically.
“She’s a beautiful woman, and because she refused him, something mysterious happened: her husband died suddenly. Immediately after his death, this man tried to inherit her as a wife. When she refused, he threw her and her children out and took everything that belonged to her husband, including her car.
“She had to rent a single room and start over, raising her four children in poverty. Her husband had worked with a company, and they once lived comfortably. But now, they’ve been reduced to hardship. The children, especially the girls, are vulnerable and at risk of trafficking, simply because they were disinherited for being female.”
Okoye noted that widowhood rites leave women economically disempowered, even those who had jobs. She lamented: “The moment a woman loses her husband, everyone suddenly becomes interested in his property, while she has no inheritance rights, not even from her own father.
“Even fathers don’t always recognise or support their daughters. They don’t think of giving them a share of the inheritance to help them survive. If they’re not around, what happens to their daughters? Some fathers are even perpetrators of this injustice. These are the realities widows truly face.”
The journal: “Some Widowhood Practices As Violence Against Nigerian Women,” exposes the severe health and human rights violations linked to widowhood rites, describing them as dehumanising traditions that harm widows physically, psychologically, and mentally.
It noted that widows often suffer grief, depression, hallucinations, and even heart attacks or insanity due to discriminatory and cruel rituals such as drinking bath water from a corpse, eating contaminated food, or enduring forced confinement and inheritance.
The journal highlighted that widows who die during mourning are denied burial rites, while widowers face no such ordeals and often remarry swiftly. It concludes that these practices reflect deep gender discrimination, violate women’s rights, and contravene constitutional guarantees of dignity and freedom from inhumane treatment.
The VAPP Act: Limitations And Way Forward
The Executive Director of the Ogechi and Sam Ikeh Foundation, Ogechi Ikeh, was part of the team that initiated the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law in Imo State. According to her, awareness of the law remains low.
“Just about 40 per cent of Imo people know about the VAPP law,” Ikeh said, blaming this on the absence of a coordinating agency to educate the public. She explained that harmful traditional practices have become deeply entrenched, almost like culture itself.
“It requires a lot of time, resources, persistence, and consistency to change the narrative,” she said. “Most widows don’t even know their rights have been protected under the VAPP law. Many still endure harmful practices out of fear, ignorance, or because they see it as tradition. But those who are aware have begun to engage the NHRC, the Ministry of Justice, and community-based organisations to seek redress.”
Ikeh pointed out that while the law is documented and can be used in any court in the state, its effectiveness is limited. “The major negative is that there is no coordinating agency yet,” she said. “By principle, the law is strong; by practice, it is weak.” She stressed that the role of such an agency would be to ensure all sectors perform their duties and to supervise proper implementation.
On specific practices, she highlighted widowhood rites such as hair shaving. Ikeh said: “Many women shave their hair not out of choice, but out of fear of stigmatisation or the diabolical beliefs attached to refusing. Others do it simply out of ignorance, thinking it honours their husbands.”
Other common practices, especially in Imo State, she noted, include property confiscation once a man dies, widows being forced to eat from unbreakable plates or cups, and being made to dress in unattractive clothing to ‘ward off’ the husband’s ghost. “These are ways fear is used to control widows,” Ikeh said.
Elizabeth Onyemaechi, Executive Director of Honourbirth Foundation, works in Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State. She noted that awareness of the VAPP law remains limited; many know of it but do not understand its scope. Still, it has helped some widows reclaim seized lands through traditional rulers, as seen in Oforola, where widows now receive land allocations. Some women’s groups have also revised their constitutions to align with the law.
However, in parts of Owerri West, widows are still denied access to farmland or property after their husbands’ deaths and often depend on their sons to speak before traditional councils.
Onyemaechi added that harmful practices are sometimes enforced by community women, the Umuada, who compel widows to shave their hair. She said convictions under the VAPP law remain rare, as victims are often pressured or intimidated into dropping their complaints.
Speaking on the VAPP Act and its likely gaps, especially widows’ awareness and lack of awareness about it, she explained: “The Anambra State government domesticated the VAPP law in 2017, and it was signed by the governor in 2018. Anambra State has 21 local governments and between 177 and 179 communities. Nobody has the resources to go everywhere, but we are trying as much as we can.
“Some NGOs focus on widows. Unfortunately, what some do is gather widows during the yuletide period and give them wrappers, food, support, and other items. If we are privileged to know about such gatherings, we try to attend. However, sometimes, because the organisers are more focused on the little economic support they are giving, they don’t give us room to take advantage of such platforms to enlighten the women. We want to do this because we know education is power.
“This education empowers widows, so some can say, ‘Okay, I want to fight for my rights, since the state law says I am protected.’ It’s not just about the VAPP law. We also have what is called the ‘Widowhood Law’ in Anambra State.”
Onyemaechi explained that Anambra State has a specific law protecting widows, alongside the VAPP law and other existing laws covering both men and women who lose their spouses. She said that public awareness remains low due to limited resources. She also said that FIDA, the Ministry, and NGOs use the Annual August Women’s Meeting and church platforms to educate community leaders, who are expected to spread the message within their villages.
She added that during community events, such as one held on September 1, they sensitise women on gender-based violence, noting that harmful widowhood practices are a key part of the discussion.
Onyemaechi stressed the need for greater public awareness of widowhood rites and the laws protecting widows. She explained that such issues are addressed within broader gender-based violence discussions, where victims are educated on their rights, reporting channels, and access to justice. According to her, FIDA uses Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) involving community and traditional leaders, when possible, but cases unsuitable for mediation are taken to court, including specialised GBV or high courts, depending on the case.
Eze (Dr.) Chidozie Nwokoma, the Okaa-omee IV of Umuokanne ancient kingdom in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area (LGA), doubles as chairman of the security, peace, and conflict resolution committee of the Imo State Council of Traditional Institutions and Community Policing.
On training traditional rulers about the VAPP law, Nwokoma admitted none had been organised formally, though a few rulers had arranged for private learning. On the disinheritance of widows, he said the issue depends on each community.
He said: “In my community, if a property is family property under the custody of the eldest, it goes to the next eldest person. If family members of the deceased try to seize it, tradition works against them.”
Asked what happens when in-laws disobey rulings, Nwokoma replied: “Our role stops at pronouncements. Once we issue a written judgment, the widow is armed to pursue legal action, which often results in her favour.”
On widowhood rites, he noted: “Hair shaving is not compulsory in any community now. It is a choice by the mourning family. But if the deceased was a traditionalist, his spouse may follow that custom.”
He added that while Umuada groups wield power during burials, rulers cannot dictate how much families spend. “Burials are carried out according to financial status,” he said.
Human rights crusader in Imo State, Marjorie Ezihe, said that all the interventions carried out by ISCEVAWG and the Onurube Coalition for justice for widows have always been related to land tussle. According to her, harmful widowhood practices have largely been abolished in Imo State due to the intervention of the church. She noted that practices such as forcing widows to drink water used to wash a corpse to prove innocence no longer exist.
However, Ezihe explained that widows who gain access to their husband’s property often come under attack from in-laws. She added that widows, particularly those who are illiterate, are easily intimidated into surrendering their late husbands’ property under the guise of “keeping peace.” This, she stressed, is what many people mistakenly describe as harmful widowhood practices in the State.
Ezihe further revealed that unscrupulous in-laws often exploit the prevailing insecurity in the region to torment widows into abandoning their homes. She said that in places like Oru East, Oru West, Orlu, Orsu, and Okigwe, it has become common for in-laws involved in land disputes to hire gunmen to drive widows away.
She further said: “In my intervention work, I have discovered that there are no longer wicked widowhood practices. However, I have also found that attempts to throw widows out, whether on claims of witchcraft or malice toward the deceased, are always rooted in land disputes.”
Ezihe explained that land disputes are at the root of many widowhood practices, with widows often intimidated by police acting for wealthy in-laws. She said insecurity worsens the problem, as gunmen are used to seize widows’ property.
According to her, justice often goes to the highest bidder, leaving poor, illiterate widows unable to afford transport, legal fees, or even phone credit. In some families, childlessness or having only daughters leads to severe stigma.
Ezihe added that poverty and corruption among traditional rulers deepen the abuse, but the VAPP law has helped curb it by ensuring documentation of police actions. So far, two convictions have been secured under the law, with more expected. She noted that land disputes often escalate once a party petitions the police, as allegations of “threat to life” turn civil cases criminal, leading to widows’ imprisonment.
Omoteso, founder of the Bola Memorial Watch and Walk With Widows Initiative, said her group supports widows through advocacy, empowerment, and counselling. She called for a dedicated ministry or agency for widows and clearer implementation of the Marriage Act to ensure surviving spouses can inherit estates without legal battles. She also urged better awareness, enforcement, and mediation in estate matters, warning that taxing estates or frozen funds amounts to exploiting bereaved families.
NAPTIP, in a follow-up response dated October 13, 2025, disclosed that the agency has been addressing cultural and traditional factors contributing to the persistence of harmful practices. It explained that these efforts are being carried out both independently and in collaboration with community-based organisations.
NAPTIP reported that it has carried out sensitisation campaigns in communities and schools, engaged traditional rulers on the VAPP Act, and used jingles, videos, dramas, and social media to challenge harmful widowhood practices.
The agency has also trained its officers and police gender desk personnel to handle related SGBV cases and continues to collaborate with community and faith leaders to eliminate such abuses.
While noting no reports from the FCT, NAPTIP identified key challenges such as underreporting, family interference, inadequate funding, and community silence. To address these, it is intensifying awareness campaigns, seeking more government and donor support, and partnering with civil society groups for community-led interventions.
NAPTIP said it has appointed and trained 12 Social Protection Officers across the six Area Councils to ensure victims of harmful widowhood practices, including those in rural areas, can easily access service providers, report cases promptly, and receive justice, rehabilitation, and protection support.
The journal” Some Widowhood Practices As Violence Against Nigerian Women,” urged the Federal Government to enact a Widow Protection Act banning all forms of widowhood practices and imposing stiffer penalties on offenders. The Act should be domesticated by all 36 states within a year, it said. It also called on traditional rulers to lead efforts to end the practices, while advocating public reorientation, female education, economic empowerment, and increased women’s political participation to promote equality and eradicate widowhood-related abuses.
Okoye, reacting to a question about better ways the government can protect widows, including safeguarding their property and for them to access justice, responded: “It’s good that these laws are there because the VAPP law is all-inclusive, just some areas that need to be reviewed. If there is a law that is trying to protect widows, I’m not against it. The government is providing an enabling environment for people who want to seek their rights and for people who want to enforce the rights of the widows.
“But the best way for widows to be well protected should start from the community and family levels! It’s the traditional institutions, getting them to really stop these practices. Maybe do a bylaw within the community to really enforce because they are the perpetrators.
“They are the people who perpetrate these so-called widowhood practices. If we can get the traditional institutions, the custodians of the culture, the families, the people, and even begin to target the young ones by catching them young, and begin to reset their minds, these things will change. These problems have been handed over from generation to generation, and it’s not as if they really sat them down to teach them. Perpetrators only learn it by watching what their fathers are doing, seeing what they are doing.”
Okoye further explained that a young man who watched his father mistreat his sister or sister-in-law, by hijacking inheritance, will think it was normal. She said that children are watching, and when it gets to their time, they will do what they saw their fathers do.
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“They learn by imitation. They watch and observe. When they tear each other’s lives apart, when they begin to sit together, drink, and talk about these things, the story goes around,” said Okoye, adding: “But if these young ones find out that somebody did it in a community, the custodians of the culture rose and dealt with that person, discouraged it, then these children are also watching and they will know it is wrong and will not dare it.
“They begin to unlearn what they have learned. But the truth remains, there is a need to engage the gatekeepers, the custodians of the culture, the traditional institutions, the community at large, all the stakeholders and the opinion leaders in the community, get them to really see the cost-benefit analysis, that this is doing us more harm than good.
“For them to begin to appeal to caution, to acknowledge those practices and do a bylaw themselves that whoever does such a thing in our community, this is what we are going to do to that family. I think that will go a long way to protect the widows.”
The Journal of Humanities and Social Policy recommends intensified awareness campaigns, especially in rural areas, to eradicate harmful widowhood practices. It urged the government to establish counselling centres to support affected widows and organise workshops to educate them about their rights. Emphasising education as key, it noted that illiteracy fuels degrading rituals, while educated and economically empowered widows are better able to resist abuse and defend their rights.
Anambra State monarch, Igwe Chidubem Iweka III, of Obosi, urged men to write their wills while alive to protect their widows from property grabbing by relatives. He stated that harmful widowhood practices, such as disinheritance, are most often inflicted upon childless, uneducated widows or those without male children. The monarch emphasised that a written will prevents disputes and ensures a deceased husband’s assets are distributed according to his wishes, safeguarding his immediate family.
. This report was facilitated by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Champion Building Component of its Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement Project.
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