Edo State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Bishop Oyonure Kure has said that the Christian community is a witness to the tremendous progress made by the Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration and will work very closely with the Ministry of Youth and Gender Issues to ensure compliance of the marriage act by churches in the state.
Speaking during an interactive meeting with the Commissioner for Youth and Gender Issues, Hon. Andrew Adaze Emwanta Esq. JP and directors of the ministry in Benin City, the CAN Chairman noted that since the Marriage act is now under the state government, the body of Christ will partner positively with the Edo State government to ensure compliance
“We believe in the vision of the Governor and there is evidence of the commitment and passion of his leadership towards enhancing the plight of Edo people. We are also happy of your commitment and activities as Commissioner to the Obaseki administration,” he added.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Youth and Gender Issues, Hon. Emwanta disclosed that under the 1973 law the power was delegated to states and the Ministry has the responsibility of ensuring compliance to the marriage act.
According to him, “it was the department of youth that was responsible under the former Ministry of Youth and Humanitarian Affairs. But the good thing now is that Gender has now been merged with us.”
“Gender is marriage related, which has further fortified that position which ministry has that responsibility. When we talk of place of worship it is not the ministry that was considered when the law was drafted.
“They were talking of the specific place where a marriage is celebrated, otherwise in Edo State when you talk of marriage registry, you have the Ministry of local government, Ministry of interior. But across the state you have eighteen local governments.”
Hon. Emwanta further explained that, “each local government marriage registry is treated as a stand-alone place to celebrate marriage. That is the same as a Ministry or a church. If you have ten branches, you probably do not celebrate marriages in all the branches.
“The moment you use a branch as a place where marriages are celebrated, it is proper you license that place because the advantage is the validity of the marriage.
“If marriages are conducted where license has not been given somebody can contest that marriage as an invalid marriage because the marriage act allows people go to places of worship that are licensed for marriages.”
While advising churches to Come to the ministry to either pay for their license or renew their license, the Commissioner said, “as government there is need for us to now ensure compliance because we do not want a situation where people will be organizing marriages and they are stopped for not complying with the law.”
In his words, “the same way we use our vehicles to do business and we license it, churches that celebrate marriages should be licensed because there is need to give to Cezar what belongs to Cezar.
“The law is specific, place of worship. If you have twenty mosques in Edo State and twenty places of worship, each of these places of worship have to be licensed if they are used to conduct marriages.
“There are some churches that have twenty branches and only three are used to conduct marriages. It is not all branches of the church that is used as a place of worship and for the purpose of celebrating marriages.
“At the moment, it is N50, 000 for the license and renewal is N15, 000. For those who have been paying and they have arrears, we can decide to write off these arrears.
The CAN chairman and the Commissioner agreed that a meeting will be fixed soon with members from the eighteen local government areas to discuss on the way forward to achieving compliance of the marriage act.
