Widow Tells Court How Late Husband's Younger Brother Forcefully Ejected Her & Children From Family House

A widow has told an Enugu Customary Court, how she was Forcefully rejected from a family house jointly build by the two brothers.

Mrs Virginia Ogbu, who is the plaintiff in the matter, told the Umuogbo Agu Customary Court, Enugu Ezike, Igbo Eze North Local Government Area of the state that her husband, late Josephat Ogbu, bought the land at N620 on January 30, 1977, from the family of Eze Ugwanyi Urama at the cost of N620 but that the two brothers contributed money to build an eight- bed room house of four flats each on the said land.

According to her, her husband's younger brother, Thomas Ogbu, later started making trouble with her late husband, who then reported the incident to the immediate family where the matter was amicably settled and the house shared into four equal rooms each.

She further stated in her court filings that the two brothers were living in their respective flats until after her husband's death, when Thomas Ogbu woke up one day and Forcefully ejected her alongside her children.

She therefore prayed the court to make a declaration that she is "the owner in possession and is entitled to be issued with the Customary Right of Occupancy, CRO, iin respect of the land being and situate at Umuogbo Agu, which she (plaintiff) inherited from her husband, late Josephat Ogbu of Umuasanya Oko, Umuogbo Agu, Enugu Ezike."

She further asked the court for an "Order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his heirs, agents, privies or anybody in whatever capacity from further trespassing on the plaintiff's four- bed flat forthwith.

"And an Order of the Court declaring that the sharing done by the Umuasanya Óko is valid and that each allotee becomes the owner absolute and that the property devolve from each allotee to his/her heirs from generation to generation. 

"An Order declaring that the eight- bed room flat be shared into two equal parts to the plaintiff and the other four-bed flat to the defendant," as well as "N1 million only being general damages"⁰+ or any other order as the court would deem fit in the circumstances of the case.

 However, Thomas has denied the claims made her later brother's widow, pointing out the he gave Josephat the money with which he purchased the land because he still was an apprentice in Lagos and did not want his master to know he had any money to acquire property then..