Mrs Eucharia Nwinyi & Ors V. Mr. Anthony Ikechukwu Okonkwo (2013)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

EMMANUEL AKOMAYE AGIM, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

Chief Reuben Nwoye Okonkwo, a native of Umudunu village Abagana in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State died intestate on the 14th November 2001, survived by his only wife Mrs Comfort Okonkwo and the respondent and all the appellants, (his children by his said wife,) leaving behind an estate consisting many buildings at Onitsha and Abagana including his obi in his compound at Umudunu village and some chattels. His personal law was the Abagana native law and custom. Mrs Comfort Okonkwo died on 29th January, 2005.

The respondent, the first and eldest child of late Chief Reuben Nwoye Okonkwo (diokpala) instituted suit No. A/202/05 on the 21st July 2005 at Awka Judicial Division of Anambra State High Court against his siblings claiming for

(a) A declaration that the plaintiff is the first son of late Chief Reuben Nwoye Okonkwo who died intestate on the 14th day of November 2001.

(b) A declaration that under the Abagana native law and custom, the plaintiff by virtue of his position as the first son and head of family of late Chief Reuben Nwoye Okonkwo’s family, is entitled to inherit his late father’s compound at Umudunu village Abagana including his Obu and an empty plot of land known as Ana onye isi

(c) A declaration that the 1st, 5th and 7th defendants, being married women have no right of inheritance in their late father’s compound or partake in the sharing of their father’s properties under the Abagana native law and custom.

(d) A declaration that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants have no customary right of inheritance within their late father’s compound as they are neither the first son or the last son.

(e) A declaration that the defendants excluding the 4th and 6th defendants are executors de-son-tort for intermeddling with the estate of their deceased father without legal authority.

(f) An order of court commanding the defendants excluding the 4th and 6th defendants to return all their late father’s properties including the two cars which they removed and sold without legal authority.

(g) A declaration that the purported sale or grant of parcels of land made by the defendants excluding the 4th and 6th defendants from their late father’s landed properties at Nkwelle Ezunaka, and 3-3 Nsugbe, are illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

(h) An order of court partitioning the entire estate of late Chief Ruben Nwoye Okonkwo excluding his residential building at Umudunu village Abagana which customarily belongs to the plaintiff, and all the defendants excluding the 1st, 5th & 7th defendants who are all married women.

(i) An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from demanding and collecting further rents from all the tenants in their late father’s estate including the shops at the Onitsha main market and the buildings at Abagana until the determination of this suit.

(j) An order of court directing the defendants, except the 4th and 6th defendants to render account of all rents and monies collected from their late father’s estate from January 2002 up to date, and pay over to the plaintiff his own share.

(k) An order of court committing the defendants (except the 4th and 6th defendants) to prison, in the event of their failure to render such account.