Second wives of men already married under the Marriage Ordinance have been warned that their marriages are illegal irrespective of the fact that the necessary customary rites have been performed.

Mr. William Osafo-Offinam, of the Nzema East District office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), gave the warning when he spoke on the Intestate Succession Law at an open forum organized by (DWM) to mark the Movement's 15th anniversary here on Thursday. He explained that whether a man was separated from his ordinance wife or not, "second wife marriages are not valid under the law and women who contract such relationships shall not be entitled to the man's property if he dies intestate".

Mr. Osafo-Offinam, therefore, advised women to always make thorough investigations into their would-be husbands' background to make sure they were not married under the ordinance. He said that under the law, an adopted child of a deceased person was also entitled to a portion of the estate just like deceased's natural child.

Mr. Osafo-Offinam said the provisions of the Intestate Succession Law were aimed at giving a larger portion of the deceased's estate to his spouse and children than it was before the law.