The federal government has described reports claiming that all marriages conducted in the Ikoyi Registry are illegal as false and misleading.
The Permanent Secretary and Principal Registrar of Marriages, Ministry of Interior, Dr. Shuaib Belgore on Tuesday in Abuja revealed that there was no truth in the statement.
Earlier, Naija News had reported that a Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that marriages conducted by the Ikoyi registry and other marriage registries operated by the Federal Ministry of Interior are illegal.
Justice Daniel Osaigor gave the ruling on Tuesday in a suit filed by Eti Osa Local Government Area of Lagos state against the ministry.
In the suit, the local council had challenged the ministry’s power to operate marriage registries, conduct marriages and issue marriage certificates.
Reacting, Belgore said: “The attention of the Ministry of Interior has been drawn to news making the rounds on social media claiming that the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has declared all Marriages conducted by Ikoyi marriage registry to be illegal and invalid.
“We would like to state that this statement is false, misleading and a deliberate distortion of the decision of the Court in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/816/18 between Eti-Osa Local Government Council & 3 others v. Honourable Minister of Interior and 2 others, where the Honourable Court held that only the Local Government councils can conduct valid marriages in.”
He also maintained that the registration of marriages are regulated by the local government but formation of marriage is under the Exclusive Legislative List, within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
“It is further worthy of note that the issue of formation, annulment and other matrimonial causes are by virtue of item 61 of the 1st Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria exclusively reserved for the Federal Government.”
This article was originally published on Naija News