ILLEGITIMACY AND THE RIGHT TO INHERITANCE OF PROPERTY

Abstract

The  provisions  of  Section  39(2)  of  the  1979  Constitution  (now  Section  42(2)  of  the  1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) altered the dynamics and changed the landscape of our law with respect to the issue of legitimacy in relation to right to succession. The  rule  in Alake  v.  Prattand Cole  v.  Akinyeleerstwhile  regulated  and  guided  our  courts  in determining the status of a child born outside wedlock and as a corollary, his right to inherit the property of the intestate father. Thus a child who was born out of wedlock, but whose paternity was  not  acknowledged  by  the  putative  father  or  was  acknowledged  but  by  the  rule  in Cole  v. Akinyelesuch acknowledged was a nullity, could not partake in the inheritance of his late father’s estate. This paper seeks to argue that in the light of the provisions of Section 42 (2) of the 1999 constitution,  that  the  principle  in Cole  v.  Akinyeleor  any  other  principle  of  law  predicating  the right to inheritance on any form of acknowledgment cannot be the barometer in determining the status  of  a  child  born  outside  wedlock  in  relation  to  his  right  to  share  in  the  inheritance  of  his biological father’s estate.It is further argued that public policy which has served as an anchorage for  some  of  these  erroneous  judicial  decisions  is  itself  a  continuum;  to  be  applied  with  great circumspection and should be juxtaposed with contemporary civilized norm.