Court Orders JAMB To Pay Female Candidate N10 Million Over Forced Removal Of Hijab

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

An Oyo State High Court has ruled that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has no powers to prevent female Muslim candidates from putting on their Hijabs to sit for examinations.

Justice Y. S. Adekunle while delivering judgment on a motion on notice filed by Mrs Basirat Ojo Oba, on behalf of her teenage daughter, Miss Lawal, also ordered JAMB authorities and co-defendent PEFTI CBT to pay the claimant the sum of N10 million in general damages

The defendants were similarly ordered to issue a written apology to be published in at least two national newspapers.

The Claimant had, in the suit filed by her counsel Qousim A Opakunle, claimed that the defendants ( JAMB and PEFTI CBT ) had made the removal of her Hijab a necessary pre-condition for her participation in an examination conducted by both parties.

She contended that the defendants, by their action, infringed on her fundamental rights to freedom of religion and thought.

Consequently, she prayed the court for an order declaring the action of the defendants as  null and void, including a declaration that any policy requiring female candidates to remove Hijabs for religious purposes is unlawful and unconstitutional.

She had also prayed the court for an order compelling the defendants to issue a public apology, as well as compensate her for the infringement on her constitutionally guaranteed rights.

Justice Adekunle in his ruling, while granting all the reliefs sought by the claimant, held that the defendants’ insistence on the candidate removing her Hijab before participating in the examination is inconsistent with the spirit and letters of the Nigerian Constitution, and therefore, null and void.

The Court similarly ruled that the defendants, by compelling the claimant to remove her Hijab, violated her fundamental rights to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution as amended..