A federal high court sitting in Lagos, on December 8, did not grant an order nullifying all weddings conducted by the Ikoyi marriage registry.
This is according to a certified true copy of the judgment seen by TheCable on Wednesday.
The Eti Osa LGA of Lagos state had in a suit marked FHC/LS/CS/816/18 — with the ministry of interior and attorney-general of the federation listed as first and second defendants, respectively — challenged the power of the ministry to operate marriage registries, conduct weddings and issue marriage certificates.
In the ruling, D.E. Osiagor, the presiding judge, held that the LG councils are statutorily responsible for issuing marriage certificates in Nigeria.
The development had sparked reactions, with several media reports claiming that the court nullified all weddings conducted by the Ikoyi marriage registry.
Among the reliefs sought by the Eti Osa LGA in the suit was “an order of the honourable court directing the 1st defendant to transmit or return all marriage certificates issued within the respective Plaintiff’s Local Government Councils” dating back to a judgment delivered in 2004.
The plaintiff had also sought an order “directing the 1st defendant to return all the fees/money paid by couples” since the judgment granted in 2004.
Giving judgment, the court restrained the ministry of interior from “further contracting marriages within the plaintiff’s local government council areas except marriages conducted in the marriage registries of Ikoyi, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.
The court, however, refused to grant the two reliefs which sought to annul the weddings conducted by the Ikoyi registry dating back to 2004.
