CSO Sensitizes 300 Ogoni Women On Property Rights, Ownership.
By Katherine Abayomi.
Rivers- Following the law passed on women rights to inheritance by the Rivers State Assembly in 2020, and the ongoing 16 days of Activism, Lokiaka Community Development Center organised a one day sensitisation training for Ogoni Women on the right to Inherit Family property.
The training which gathered over 300 Ogoni women from the four Local Government Areas, namely, Khana, Gokana, Eleme, and Tai, x-rayed the rights of the women on family inheritance.
A legal Practitioner, Consultant and One of the panelist, Okorite Yobo who spoke at the training, eulogised the topic, describing it as timely.
Yobo who shared the intricacy’s of the law on the subject matter adviced women to speak up when faced with issues of life.
“There are Many cases to talk about but fortunately they are answers, they have seen the light. There is a way you will have issues and you don’t know what to do,but now you have issues and you have been told there are solutions and there are possibilities, so that’s a beautiful thing, alot of lives are been turned around .I was gald to hear women talking about having properties, so I can write a will and someone asked “Is it right as a married woman to write a will? And we explained that based on the law, yes, your first a human being then been a woman,so why not”. She stated.
The Consultant adviced women to speak up when faced with issues of life especially on abused.
While urging them to explore offices that have been made available to them by the Government and the media, she called on all hands to be on deck to help the women fight for their rights.
She addedel that Government need to do sensentization of course but it lies on the people to take step when they feel that their rights are been abused or infringed upon.
She encouraged women to take step always in protecting theur rights.
“someone was asking that she was trying to convince a woman to come and seek help,that’s the mentality but I understand because 25years plus of been in the social impact space I understand that women have been conditioned from birth to think in a certain way, like you need permission to do everything, so it’s not just for the government as organisation, as Media everyone has to put their hands on deck to get this sensentization going and to help women build confidence and fight for their right.” Yobo retorted.
Also, the Executive Director of Lokiaka Community Development Centre, Martha Agbani, who spoke during the training, described the conversation as apt noting that despite the law been passed by the Rivers State Assembly in 2020, its enforcement and implementation is unremarkable in the region.
“We are looking at laws that had been passed in 2020 by the Rivers State house of Assembly that talks about the Rights for Women to have access or inherit property. If you go through the customary Courts especially the Ogoni Customary Courts down to Customary Appeal Court most of the cases they have there are landed cases, cases that have to do with spousal denially, widowhood issues that affect them and you see women losing their rights to inheritance”.
“In the family, there are women that the customary rights or practices doesn’t allow to own landed property. This is a challenge and it’s causing a lot of problems.” she stated.
She noted that women, even in their reproductive stage, endangers their lives in the quest to have a male child in order to inherit the father’s property adding that in some cases the women dies in the process.
“We also see beyond this that women who are within the reproductive age stress themselves so much to get male children to earn them an inheritance. The need to explore and make them understand the content of the law and their rights, and to understand the issues that affect them.”
Executive Director emphasized the need for government to intentionally sensitize and train the locals and ensures the enforcement of the law.
“The call to the government is sensitization because if we do not apply these laws, it will not aid the people, hence the sensitization for the people and also to exercise authority over the law that make it enforceable for people. The need to know that the state laws supersede the customary laws or local laws passed. The government needs to carry out more sensitization to the grassroots, for people to know that these laws exist” She said.
She however noted that the Capacity Building for lawyers should not be left out “Beyond the sensitization, they also need to build the capacity of lawyers that handle these matters because even when they know that these laws are there but because of interest of
making money they seem to jettison that law and go as far as suffering these women.
One of the participants from Mogho, in Gokana LGA, Nuvalobar Gbigha described the programme as an eye opener and promised to act on what she has learnt and appreciate Lokiaka Centre for the exposure.
Charity another participant from Khana, also expressed gratitude to the organisers of the program and promised to spread the message in her community.