ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, when a person dies and leaves property, the property of that person is given to another person or people as their inheritance. However, those entitled to inherit the property are determined in different ways; a person can decide, before he or she dies, who should inherit his property and under the English law, this is written down and signed in a document called a will. But where there is no will, other laws are used to decide who gets the property. Customary law is often used in this instance and there are as many variations of customary laws as there are ethnic groups in the country.
It is therefore worthy of note that intestate succession in Nigeria is faced with legal issues due to the pluralistic nature of the Nigerian Customary Law and also because most of the native laws or customs discriminate against the rights of daughters to inherit. Typically, daughters get little or nothing in comparison with sons when it comes to intestate succession. This is because Customary laws exhibit an overwhelming sympathy for sons and have as a consequence, sustained an unjust and disproportional treatment for daughters in Nigeria.
This study examines the Customary Law of inheritance in three ethnic group in Nigeria; Igbo, Benin and Yoruba which tend to discriminate against the inheritance right of daughters in intestacy. The major aim of this study is the examination of the trend of judicial decisions in guaranteeing, protecting and halting the historic onslaught of discriminatory customary law of succession against daughters in the three aforementioned ethnic groups.
