A Lagos High Court has barred local government areas from conducting marriages across the country.
The court, in a judgment, declared that the Local Government Unified Marriage Certificate was unknown to law and therefore unconstitutional, null and void.
The judgment wa pronounced by Justice I. O. Harrison of Court 37, General Civil Division of the Lagos Judicial Division, dated May 15, 2017, in suit no LD/1343GCM/2016.
An applicant, Olamide Babalola, himself and other recipients of marriage certificates modified at local governments, had dragged the local government of Ikeja and the registered trustees of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria to court on The amended marriage certificate issued by the first and second defendants.
The plaintiff had sought a declaration that the first defendant did not have the powers to issue modified or customised marriage certificates different from the one provided in Form E under Section 24 of the Marriage Act Laws of Federation of Nigeria,1990.
Babalola requested for a declaration that the second defendant’s Local Government Unified Marriage Certificate was unknown to law and unconstitutional.
He also wanted a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, officers, employees and representatives from further issuing modified or altered marriage certificates apart from the form as provided under Form E (1st schedule) and Section 24 of the Marriage Act, LFN, 1990.
Harrison, in her judgment, declared that the first defendant did not have the powers to issue modified or customised marriage certificates different from the one provided in Form E under section 24 of the Marriage Act.
She said, “The court thus orders as follows: declaration that the second defendant’s ‘Local Government Unified Marriage Certificate’ is unknown to our law, unconstitutional, null and void.
“It is thus trite that the local and state government cannot make separate arrangements outside that provided for in the Marriage Act, that is Form E,” Harrison ruled.
The court however added that the marriages conducted by local governments and issued with the certificates, which are not in conformity with Form E, “will by virtue of Section 34 of the Marriage Act be regarded as good and valid in law to all intents and purposes.”
It “believes that there should be a re-issuance of the proper certificate to all persons in possession of the ‘invalid’ certificates.”
The judgment read in part: "The court will accordingly order that all amended marriage certificates issued by the first and second accused be delivered to the appropriate local government where the marriage was conducted and appropriate certificate, in line with Form E, should be reissued to the claimants herein and all other concerned persons.”
The judge said the second defendant and its branches issued their own form known as the Local Government Unified Marriage Certificate, which was also issued to the claimant by the first defendant.
Following the ruling, the federal government wrote to various embassies in the country not to recognize marriages run by local governments.
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