Akwa Ibom outlaws ‘customary’maltreatment of widows

The custom of seizing properties of the
deceased husbands and subjecting their
widows to inhuman practices has been
outlawed by the Akwa Ibom State
Government. Such customs like shaving
the grieving wives’ hair and making them
drink the water used to bath

their husbands’ corpses have been
declared illegal by the state describing
such acts as “unlawful” and “inhuman.”
The declaration was contained in a bill
passed by the House of Assembly and
signed into law by the State Governor
Godswill Akpabio.
Akpabio declared that it had become
unlawful for widows to be maltreated in
Akwa Ibom, noting that defaulters of
the law risk fines as well as a three-
year jail term.
In her reaction to the new law, Unoma
Ekaette Akpabio, the Governor’s wife,
commended the State’s executive and
legislature for the pro-women law,
describing its passage as a breakthrough
for women in the state.
“I appreciate the State House of
Assembly and the state governor for
standing with the womenfolk through this
law. Akwa Ibom State has, in the last
five years, shown itself as pro-masses
and pro-women,” she said.