FG says marriages conducted by Ikoyi Registry, others are valid

Earlier today, it was reported that the Federal High Court ruled that marriages conducted by the Ikoyi Registry and other federal marriage registries were invalid.

This was the judgement of the Federal High Court, Lagos in a suit between the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, the Federal Government and Ministry of Interior where the court held that they cannot issue valid marriage certificates.

However, the Ministry of Interior has released a statement stating that their position has been misconstrued and in fact marriages conducted by them are not invalid but subsisting and not annulled.

The ministry's Permanent Secretary and Principal Registrar of marriages, Shuaib Belgore said in a statement, "The issue of formation, annulment and other matrimonial causes by virtue of the 1st schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are exclusively reserved to the Federal Government."

He also added that the Ministry of Interior is empowered to conduct marriages by virtue of the Legal Notice issued pursuant to the Marriage Act and that the claimants began a similar suit in 2016 and thus are abusing court processes.

He urged the general public not be perturbed as the marriages are still at status quo ante.