BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The Lagos State Government has said it will abide by the Supreme Court ruling that granted willing female Muslim students the freedom to wear the hijab to schools in the state.
The State Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo, disclosed this to The Point as she explained what the next move of the state government will be, following the apex court ruling on June 17, 2022.
The commissioner stated that the state government is willing to abide by the apex court’s ruling, adding that it was waiting on the legal department before making their next move and will make a proclamation on it soon.
She said, “It’s a ruling from the Supreme Court, we are a law abiding state, so we must abide by the tenants of the ruling. We are waiting for the formal ruling from our legal department.”
We will issue our statement very soon in respect of it. We know the ruling is out and we’ve gotten our own copy of it, so we will respond appropriately,” she noted.
Recall that five out of seven members of the court’s panel ruled in favour of the wearing of the hijab, as the apex court rejected the appeal by the state government.
It therefore affirmed the earlier judgement of the Court of Appeal which ruled that the ban on hijab discriminated against the rights of Muslim students in the state.
The Appeal Court had also on July 21, 2016, overturned a Lagos State High Court judgement of October 17, 2014, which upheld the state government’s decision to ban the use of hijab in public primary and secondary schools in the state.
Delivering the lead judgement of the Court of Appeal panel, A.B Gumel, held that the wearing of hijab was an act of worship required of Muslims.
The Supreme Court also said the state government’s ban in its schools violated the rights of Muslim students to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, dignity of human persons and freedom from discrimination as provided by the 1999 Constitution.
The court panel that granted the ruling included the new acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, John Inyang Okoro, Uwani Aji, Mohammed Garba, Tijjani Abubakar, and Emmanuel Agim.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria, Lagos had on June 22, issued a 30-day ultimatum to the Lagos State government to implement the Supreme Court judgement, asking the government to issue a circular on the court verdict while it cautioned school officials against harassing female Muslims wearing the hijab to school.
