Benue State Government has raised a bill to establish the Benue State Widows Commission and to prohibit harmful practices against widows, as well as protect them from exploitative acts, punish offenders and for related purposes
The bill, according to the State Governor if passed by the State House of Assembly and signed into law it would bring to an end one of the age-long negative practices among the people and become a point of reference and emulation in other parts of the country.
In a statement issued by Terver Akase, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Samuel Ortom and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Saturday, the decision of the Ortom administration to enact the law is premised on the fact that there are several ethnic groups in the state with diverse cultural norms and practices which negatively impact widows upon the death of their husbands.
The statement read in parts, “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”.
The Bill seeks to protect widows from both monogamous and polygamous marriages.
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