Inheritance feud: Siblings turn foes, kill one another over absence of will

 

In the absence of a will, a once-close family could disintegrate and descend into a violent and bitter conflict over late parents’ assets.

Siblings at daggers drawn turns what should have been a grieving process into a gruesome fight for inheritance, with bloodshed marking the bitter struggle, writes GODFREY GEORGE

“While our father’s body was still in the mortuary, my younger brother started selling off all his lands,” recounted Jonah Justice, as the audience looked on in astonishment.

“Before we could grasp what was happening, some people had come to take over the family house because, according to them, he had sold it.”

Justice, 29, was a guest at a conference for firstborns organised by a non-governmental organisation, Voices of Peaceful Transfer of Assets, which champions the need for will-writing among young adults.

As a young lawyer, Justice found himself thrust into adulthood prematurely after his father passed away when he was just 22.

His younger brother, then only 19, became a source of distress and conflict in what he had hoped would be a smooth transition of their father’s assets.

With only the two of them left in the family, Jonah had anticipated that managing their father’s estate would be a cooperative and peaceful process. Instead, he was met with stiff opposition, betrayal and turmoil.

Their mother, Eunice, a retired nursing officer with the Plateau State Ministry of Health, was engulfed in grief and struggling to cope with the loss of her husband.

Yet, amid her mourning, she faced the agonising reality of watching her late husband’s possessions being taken over by unfamiliar faces.

Her son had sold the assets while they were preoccupied with the burial arrangements, thus, adding to the crushing weight of her sorrow.

“Since my husband died in 2018 and my son began selling off his assets, I have not seen him,” she said, her voice trembling with pain.

“It’s been a harrowing ordeal, watching my home and my husband’s legacy dissolve before my eyes.”

Eunice recalled a particularly brutal incident when her eldest son, Jonah, confronted his younger brother.

In response, the younger son hired thugs to assault Jonah.

“If you look closely at his head, you’ll see a deep machete scar. He came perilously close to losing his life,” she added, tears welling in her eyes.

Eunice expressed her bewilderment at her son’s drastic change, lamenting, “My husband and I raised him with love and taught him the ways of God,” she lamented.

He was a bright student, who had just been admitted to study Biology Education at the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State. We were still based in Abuja and had not yet relocated to Lagos. Yet, somehow, he transformed into someone completely unrecognisable.”

Eunice’s anguish was palpable as she reflected on the shattered dreams and fractured family bonds that emerged from a period of profound loss.

Her son, according to her, left home in 2018, leaving her to battle the people he had sold the property to.

Eunice added that his actions left an indelible mark on their lives, turning a time of mourning into a relentless cycle of betrayal and despair.

“Whenever I remember my husband’s memory, it is tainted by the thoughts and images of my two sons battling over his property. That is so unfair,” the 71-year-old woman said.

Jonah’s experience might pale into insignificance when similar cases that turned into a bloodbath are cited.

In March 2024, in what could be described as a tragic turn of events in Niger State, a man, Abubakar Sani, was accused of fatally attacking his elder brother, Kabiru, over a property dispute.

The brothers, who hail from the Tafa Local Government Area, but reside in Gawu Babangida, a community in the Gurara Local Government Area, were known to have shared a very close bond.

However, a heated argument over the ownership of a property on Sunday escalated into violence, leading to a heartbreaking tragedy.

According to witnesses, the confrontation reached a violent crescendo when Abubakar, in a moment of unrestrained fury, struck Kabiru with a large stick.

The assault, the peak of long-standing tensions and threats that Abubakar had reportedly directed at his family, resulted in a grievous injury.

Kabiru, 34, was left unconscious by the blow and was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre in Gawu. He was pronounced dead on arrival by medical personnel.

The Incident, which sent shockwaves through the community, left members of the family grappling with the loss and a devastating rift that might never be mended.

When Sunday PUNCH reached out for comment, the State Police Spokesman, Wasiu Abiodun, confirmed the arrest of Abubakar Sani, aged 30, noting that the investigation was still ongoing.

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