The Federal Government has issued a list of the 12 registries licensed to conduct marriage in Nigeria. This is to settle the ongoing dispute of power between the Federal government and local government who have over the past disagreed on who has the legal rights to conduct marriage.
The Ministry of Interior as the Herald of the Federal Government has restated its stance as the only tier of government permitted by law to conduct marriages.
This was made known in a statement published on the ministry’s website.
The statement further said it was within the power of the ministry to issue licenses to places of worship and LGAs who have met the certain conditions as stated in Sections 4(2) & (5) of the Marriage Act.
The Ministry of Interior has therefore licensed only 12 registries across the country to conduct marriages. They are;
- Federal Marriage Registries in Ikoyi, Lagos State
- Ikeja, Lagos State
- Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
- Benin, Edo State
- Owerri, Imo State
- Port Harcourt, Rivers State
- Kano, Kano State
- Jos, Plateau State
- Enugu, Enugu
- Kaduna, Kaduna
- Ibadan, Oyo State
- Makurdi, Benue State
Read the statement below
Public notice on conduct of statutory marriage’,
“The attention of the Ministry of Interior has been drawn to the publication in the PUNCH Newspaper of Friday, 13th September, 2019, page 42 under the caption, ‘Marriage: Ignore FG’s directive, LGs tell organisations’.
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“The Ministry of Interior is therefore constrained to issue this notice in order to properly guide the public on the issue of Statutory Marriages under the applicable law in Nigeria.”
“It is observed that the local governments have deliberately misinterpreted powers conferred on them by item 7 (1) of the Fourth Schedule of the constitution.
“For the avoidance of doubt, item 7(1) states that the functions of the Local Government include: registration of all births, deaths and marriages. This provision is clear and requires the local government councils to maintain registries to register births, deaths and marriages for record purposes and planning.”
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