There's this mild drama currently going on in the family. My uncle died late last year (at an old age). The problem here is that they some delay in child birth, (7 years after their wedding to be prescise) so during this long wait, he and the wife decided to adopt a male child.
7 years after his adoption, children started popping in. They had a set of twins (males) and then 2 boys and a girl making it 5 biological children.
This my uncle was a wealthy man, so he had properties in the town of their state of origin and in the village.
Upon his death last year, the eldest son (the one who was adopted) sealed off the property in their village and claimed ownership of the 3 rental buildings in the town. This angered my uncle's brothers who were of the opinion that he's not family and therefore has no right to do such when the man's biological kids are very much around.
So they (the uncles) had a meeting with the biological sons of their late brother to get rid of what they termed an outcast in their midst.
They later invited the adopted young man to the village and used the community youths to beat him up and threatened to kill him if he doesn't stay away from their family properties. That he should look for his own biological parents and inherit whatever they left for him.
Now this didn't go down well, cos he used the police to lock up one of the twins and the whole family members are threatening fire and brimstone if the young man isn't released. They took the matter to the community elders who of course supported them by saying the adopted man has no right of forceful claim to any property unless it's given to him willingly by the family members.
As of now they have destroyed his wife's business in one of the buildings, burnt his car and have vowed to even kill him if he doesn't release their son.
That's why I brought it here. Was the adopted son wrong to have claimed ownership of his late father's properties without the official nod of the family members?
Do adopted children have right of inheritance in the family they find themselves?
What's your opinion on this matter.
Modified: I forgot to add that my uncle hasn't been buried because of this matter. His body is still in the mortuary cos there have to be an agreement from the family before burial takes place, and since the family is in chaos, the burial cannot hold for now.
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