The Supreme Court of Nigeria has granted the use of hijab by female Muslim students in Lagos State Government-owned schools.
The court gave the judgment in an appeal – Lagos State Govt. and Ors V. Asiyat AbdulKareem with suit number SC/910/16 – on Friday in Abuja.
A seven-man panel of Justices, of five to two, the Apex court affirmed the earlier decision of the Lagos Division of Court of Appeal, which nullified a High Court judgment that banned female students from wearing Hijab with their school uniforms.
The court, in its lead majority verdict prepared by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun but read by Justice Tijani Abubakar, dismissed as lacking in merit, an appeal Lagos state government lodged against the Court of Appeal decision.
The Supreme Court said it found no reason to reinstate the October 17, 2014 judgment by Justice Grace Onyeabo of the High Court of Lagos State, which upheld the ban on Hijab.
