12th
September, 2024
PRESS
RELEASE:
LANDMARK JUDGEMENT ON ISLAMIC VERSUS REGISTRY MARRIAGE: MURIC
COMMENDS TAJUDEEN OLADOJA SAN
The
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has commended a legal luminary, Tajudeen Oladoja
(SAN), for securing a landmark judgement in favour of Islamic marriage thus giving
women married under the Shariah the right to share in the inheritance of a
husband who had married another woman at the registry.
The
commendation was given in a statement credited to the Executive Director of MURIC,
Professor Ishaq Akintola. The statement was issued on Thursday, 12th
September, 2024.
The
full statement reads:
“A major
in the Nigerian Army, late Muhammed Arogun Adeniyi, died as a Muslim on 18th
October, 2020
and was buried according to Muslim rights. He
was survived by three wives: one Christian and two Muslims. Meanwhile his next
of kin, Nike Muhammed, who was the daughter of his Christian wife whom he married
at the registry, Evangelist Mrs. Olabisi Muhammed, was paid all her father’s
entitlements to the exclusion of the other two wives and their children. Apart
from properties, the total amount paid to her was N36 million.
“The
aggrieved Muslim wives challenged the matter at the Upper Area Court, Ilorin. Nike’s
mother asked to be joined in the suit. Her request was granted. She challenged
the jurisdiction of the Islamic court to hear the suit since she was married
under the Marriage Act. She insisted that his late husband’s properties
belonged to her and her daughter alone to the exclusion of the deceased’s old
parents and his other two wives. However, the Upper Area Court dismissed her arguments.
“Nike
Muhammed and her mother appealed to the Shariah Court of Appeal of Kwara State
where they got a surprising reversal of the lower Shari‘ah Court’s decision. The
Shariah Court of Appeal of Kwara State ruled on 3rd August, 2020 that
it was the marriage Act law that should be used in determining the method of sharing
the late major’s inheritance.
“This
was where the legal luminary came in. The legal bulldozer, Tajudeen Oladoja
took up the case and filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Kano,
bringing to bear his decades of experience at the bar as a senior learned
counsel. The Kano Court of Appeal reversed the Kwara Shari’a Court of Appeal’s
decision and upheld the trial Upper Area Court ruling on Islamic inheritance
distribution.
“The unanimous
judgment in Appeal No. CA/IL/SH/1/2022 delivered on Friday, 23rd
August, 2024 by Justice Muhammed Lawal Shuaibu, Justice Abubakar Muazu Lamido
and Justice Ahmad Ramat Muhammad directed the daughter of the late Major
Mohammed Arogun Adeniyi, Nike Mohammed and her mother, Evangelist Mrs. Olabisi
Mohammed, to surrender all the late Major Muhammed Adeniyi’s belongings,
properties, benefits and entitlements for distribution to his heirs in
accordance with Islamic Law.
“The sociological
implication of this landmark judgement is that only Nike Muhammed and her
mother had inherited all the properties of the late Major Muhammed Adeniyi
while even the deceased’s aged mother and his two Muslim wives got nothing.
They were thus left to suffer in abject poverty until the Kano Court
of Appeal upturned the decision of the lower court of appeal.
Takeaways from the judgement include the following:
One, this case has highlighted the
humane nature of Islamic Shari’ah. In the registry marriage system, the only wife
and her children will inherit everything belonging to the late husband leaving
nothing for his old parents. But the Islamic inheritance system will share the
man’s properties among all the wives, the children, the old parents (if any),
his siblings, etc.
Two, the judgement established
beyond any reasonable doubt that there is indeed a dichotomy between native law
and Islamic law when the court said, "...there is in fact exists, a legal dichotomy
between native laws and Islamic Law which has now been recognized by the 1999
Constitution. In fact, the 1999 Constitution established three distinct legal
systems operating concurrently in Nigeria, the English Common Law and statutes
enacted by the various tiers of government, the native law and the custom of
the people (as long as it meets the repugnancy test) and Islamic Law, which by
its very nature is an absolute law."
“Three, that the marriage of a Muslim man to a
Christian woman under the Marriage Act does not imply a renunciation of his
faith. The learned judges declared, ‘It is also pertinent to note that there is
no argument as to the fact that the deceased who lived and died as a Muslim,
was free to marry a Christian woman.
“The judges continued, ‘The fact that he married
the 2nd Respondent under the Marriage Act does not mean that he renounced his
Islamic faith. Furthermore, the deceased, being a Muslim, was also entitled to marry more than one wife,
but not exceeding four wives at a given time, as ordained in the Holy Quran, in
Chapter 4, Verse 3 which reads thus:
‘And if you fear
that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of
other women, two or three or four. But if you fear that you will not be just,
then marry only one or those your right hand possesses. That is more suitable,
that you may not be inclined to injustice.
“Adding, ‘Thus, his subsequent marriages under Islamic Law which he had
chosen was therefore in consonance with his constitutionally guaranteed right
under Section 38 (1) (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“‘The fact that the Major married Evangelist (Mrs.)
Olabisi Mohammed under the Marriage Act, does not mean he renounced his Islamic
faith. In other words, the deceased has not changed the factory setting of his
religion as a Muslim merely by contracting the registry marriage with the
Evangelist.
“Four, concerning the determination of the applicable law to govern the
estate of a Muslim who married a Christian under the Marriage Act, the Court of
Appeal held that, ‘The
administration of estate of a person who lived and died as a Muslim but married
to a Christian under the Marriage Act is governed by Islamic Law. The deceased
Major, though married to his first wife, Evangelist (Mrs.) Olabisi Mohammed,
under the Marriage Act, was born a Muslim, lived as a Muslim, and died as one.
“Five, on the
method of proper interpretation of statute, the court held thus, ‘The learned
Kadis of the Sharia Court of Appeal of Kwara State, Ilorin, are oblivious to
the fact that Islamic Law is not the same as Customary Law, as it does not
belong to any particular tribe. Thus, it is a complete system of universal law,
more certain and permanent, and more universal than even the common law.
“These
pronouncements are monumentally crucial for the ongoing debate on the legality
or otherwise of Islamic marriage vis a vis statutory marriage or
marriage conducted at the registry. This judgement has opened a new window in the
Islamic legal circle regarding the eligibility of a woman married under the Shari’ah
for the properties of her husband even in the face of a subsisting statutory
marriage.
“Tajudeen
Oladoja SAN has deployed his well-known courtroom oratory and his long
experience at the bar to cut a new path and bring succour to Muslim women who have
suffered deprivation and neglect from the Nigerian society’s strict adherence
to a highly conservative and ruthless colonial legal system.
“MURIC
celebrates this great Muslim SAN for coming out openly to identify with the
Shariah legal system and defending it until he secured victory for it. Islamdom
will write his name in letters of gold.”
Professor
Ishaq Akintola,
Founder/Executive
Director,
Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC).
