Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
A widow from Nsokkara community in Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Mrs Njideka Ngwuta, has cried out for justice after a community women's group banned her from fetching water from community streams and boreholes, barred her from entering markets, and formally ostracized her from all community activities, in a case that has exposed the persistence of harmful traditional practices against widows in parts of Nigeria's South-East.
Ngwuta, who was married into the Ngwuta Anyigor family of Acharaukwu Nsokkara about 27 years ago, said the leadership and members of the Acharaukwu Development Union Women Wing wrongfully accused and ostracized her without fair hearing or proper investigation, and that the punishment was initiated by notable personalities in her kindred with the aim of banishing her and grabbing her late husband's land and confiscating other family estates. In her petition, titled "Urgent Petition Against Extreme Harassment, Ostracizing, and Attempted Forcible Eviction," submitted to the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs in Abakaliki, she alleged that members of the Umunaza Kindred had united against her and that she had no one to speak on her behalf because all the adult male children of her husband's family had died of strange diseases.
Her account is one of profound loss and isolation. Her husband died, as did his two brothers and their parents, leaving the entire Ngwuta Anyigor family in the hands of widows and young children. Before her mother-in-law died in 2016, her co-wives and their children had fled the village owing to what she described as numerous spiritual attacks and unexplainable deaths in the family, leaving only her mother-in-law, herself and her three children behind. She said she had wanted to run away with her children but could not leave her aged mother-in-law alone, and she stayed behind to care for her until she died and was buried. After her death, Ngwuta said she realised that leaving the village would mean the family name, compound and legacy would go into extinction, so she stayed back, farmed on the family lands, and used the proceeds to train her children in school. Some of her husband's nephews and nieces subsequently returned and now live with her in the family compound.
The dispute escalated when members of the Umunaza Kindred attempted to take over the family's land and other estates. Ngwuta said the wider Acharaukwu community intervened in the land dispute and ruled in her favour. It was after losing that dispute, she alleged, that the Acharaukwu Development Union Women Wing resorted to character assassination and ostracization. In 2024, according to her petition, the ADU Women Wing banned her from fetching water from any of the community streams or boreholes, banned her from entering any market in the community, and barred her from associating with anyone in the community, threatening to kill her if she disobeyed. "They forcefully handed me a matchbox indicating that I had been ostracized from the community," she said. "At the moment, my life and the lives of my children are in grave danger. My children have fled our home. I am currently living as a fugitive, sleeping in neighbouring communities."
She also alleged that her neighbour, Miss Rebecca Aleke, was tortured for visiting her compound after the ostracization was announced, and that the leadership of the ADU Women Wing had bluntly refused to honour the traditional ruler's invitation when he got wind of the matter. The leadership of the ADU Women Wing, including its President, Mrs Leticia Ngele, and Mrs Eucheria Nwandende, confirmed that Ngwuta had been ostracized and handed a box of matches as proof of her excommunication. They alleged that she was being sanctioned for previously spearheading similar actions against other women in the community who violated community decisions. That allegation has not been independently verified.
The traditional ruler of Nsokkara Autonomous Community, His Royal Highness Eze Ifesinachi Okonkwo, and community stakeholder Chief Celestine Ekechi, condemned the action, describing it as barbaric and alien to Nsokkara culture. Eze Okonkwo said ostracization was not part of the community's culture and disclosed that efforts to resolve the dispute had failed after letters of summons sent to the perpetrators were ignored. In a decisive intervention, the traditional ruler disbanded the leadership of the Acharaukwu Development Union Women Wing for banishing the widow, and submitted a dissolution order to the Office of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters. He said the action of the women's group contradicted Section 002 of the 2018 Ebonyi State Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law, described the banishment as a violent act that had caused Ngwuta physical and emotional trauma, and ordered that she should return to her matrimonial home and reunite with her children and loved ones, adding that further threats to her life would be visited with the full weight of the law. The palace said it had initiated an in-depth investigation to unravel the sponsors of what it described as a barbaric and heinous act.
Ngwuta has appealed to the Nigeria Police Force, the wife of the Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs Uzoamaka Nwifuru, the Ministry of Women Affairs, and other well-meaning Nigerians to urgently intervene and conduct a thorough investigation into her plight. She is asking the police and the First Lady to protect her life, her children, her home and her property, and has called on the governor's wife to summon the leadership of the ADU Women Wing to explain their actions.
The case is not an isolated one. Widowhood practices that include ostracization, denial of inheritance, and restrictions on accessing community resources like water sources and markets have been documented across Ebonyi State and other parts of the South-East for years. Reports have documented widows being forced to drink water used to wash their late husbands' corpses, being banished over allegations of witchcraft, and being stripped of their husbands' properties. The Ebonyi State Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law 2018 was enacted to address such abuses, but enforcement has been uneven, and many widows lack the resources or support to challenge harmful practices. The intervention of the traditional ruler in Ngwuta's case represents a significant step towards accountability, but the fact that she remains in hiding, separated from her children and living as a fugitive in neighbouring communities, underscores the human cost of a dispute that began with a land grab and metastasized into a campaign of social exclusion. For Ngwuta, the disbandment of the women's wing and the monarch's order for her return home represent a measure of hope, but the threat to her life remains real, and the protection she has requested from the police and the state government has yet to materialise.
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