WIDOWS WILL NO LONGER DRINK BATH-WATER OF THEIR DEAD HUSBANDS IN A/IBOM

The custom
allowing the seizure of deceased husbands properties and subjecting their
widows to inhuman practices such as shaving of the head and making them drink
the water used to bath their  husbands, among others, have now become
illegal in Akwa Ibom State.

The state government, in a bill passed by the House of Assembly
and signed by the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, outlawed the custom which
maltreat widows after the deaths of their husbands, declaring it as unlawful
and inhuman.

In his Democracy Day speech, the governor declared that it had
become unlawful for widows to be maltreated in Akwa Ibom, saying defaulters of
the  law  risk  fines and three years imprisonment.

While reacting on the new law, the First Lady of the state, Chief
(Mrs) Unoma Ekaette Akpabio, commended the House of Assembly and the governor
for the pro-women law, describing the passage of the law as a breakthrough for
the womenfolk in the state.

According to her, “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.”