Imo State High Court Sacks Widow, Children from Husband’s 52-year Old House
- Orders husband’s corpse to be exhumed

By Hycinth Ibe

A High Court in Orlu, Imo State has ordered the duo of Godfrey Okwara and Barnabas Okwara, defendants in a suit Number HOR/9/2010 to vacate their father’s house with their widowed mother, Mrs. Janet Okwara. Many see the judgment as a clear case of injustice. Many accuse the judge of compromise.

In a statement on Friday, the Nigerian Human Rights Community, (NHRC) asked the Imo State Chief Judge to set up an investigation to probe the judgment. The NHRC is a statement signed by it Deputy Secretary, Oluwole Akinbade stated “We call on the NJC to investigate this judgment. The police and some collaborators have been relating with the judiciary in the most corrupt manner. We want the Federal and State Governments to investigate the matter.” The group has forwarded a petition to the Presidency and the NJC. The Civil Liberties Organisation, (CLO) also wants the Attorney General of the Federation and the Imo State Government to probe the allegations of graft against the judge.
The CLO stated “We view with suspicion the judgment of the court. We want the NJC to investigate the matter.”


The Presiding Judge Hon Justice C.A Onoeze-Madu had also ordered the defendants to exhume the corpse of their late father, Dominic Okwara, and also pay the sum of N100,000 as damages to the plaintiff, Mr. Paul Okwara, an uncle to the defendants.

The crux of the matter was a house reportedly erected in 1964 by the defendant’s father, the late Dominic Okwara, on a piece of land close to the Paul Okwara’s compound in Umuokwara Mgbee, in Orlu Local Government of Imo State. The plaintiff was said to have sued his nephews, Godfrey and Barnabas at Ihioma Customary Court in 1998 claiming the premises belongs to his Ishiobi Compound.

The case was alleged to have been abandoned without conclusion in 2005, but the plaintiff re-opened the case at Nkwerri Customary Court, which dragged till 2009 without conclusion.

The plaintiff proceeded to Orlu High Court for the case to be revisited in 2010, in which judgment was delivered on March 24, 2016 with the above verdict.

The defendants maintained that the compound in dispute was the right of the grandfather, Agwunedu, who was the last son of their common mother. But the plaintiff who is the son of the first son of the woman was opposed to this, stating that Obubo Ede right was somewhere far away and Orlu High Court was said to have upheld his view.