PRESIDENT of the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA), Mrs Amanda Demechi-Asagba, has described bigamy as a ‘serious crime’ under Nigerian Law, enabled by weak enforcement.
Demechi-Asagba told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Wednesday in Lagos that bigamy was not only confined to matrimonial proceedings, but constituted a criminal offence defined by Nigerian statute.
She, however, noted that the offence had gradually become a crime only on paper and a new normal in society, following weakness of enforcement mechanisms.
The AWLA president attributed the drawback to a number of factors, chief among which she described as cultural and patriarchal norms of society.
“Bigamy occurs when a legally married person goes through a form of marriage with someone else. The second marriage is entirely void in the eyes of the law, but the act of participating in that second ceremony is the crime,” she said.
While noting that the term is not just restricted to matrimonial causes, she stated that the provisions of both the Criminal and Penal codes, criminalised the offence and spelt out sanctions.
“Pursuant to Section 370 of the Criminal Code applicable in Southern Nigeria and Section 361 of the Penal Code applicable in Northern Nigeria, a person who, having a spouse living, contracts another marriage is liable on conviction to a term of up to seven years imprisonment.
“The Marriage Act, Cap M6 LFN 2004, also criminalises the contraction of a subsequent statutory marriage while a prior one subsists.
“Notwithstanding the clear statutory prohibition, the enforcement of bigamy laws in Nigeria, remains weak in practice and this is attributable to several intersecting factors,” she said
Demechi-Asagba identified that deeply entrenched patriarchal structures in Nigeria, often discouraged women from seeking legal redress against their spouses guilty of bigamy.
According to her, the institution of marriage is frequently regarded as sacrosanct and it is socially stigmatised for a wife to institute criminal or civil proceedings against her husband.
“A significant number of women lack adequate knowledge of their statutory rights and available legal remedies, coupled with financial constraints and procedural complexities; this results in low prosecution rates.
“More so, Nigeria operates a plural legal system comprising statutory, customary and Islamic law; so, while statutory marriage under the Marriage Act is strictly monogamous, customary law permits polygamy.
“This duality creates public confusion, with the erroneous perception that the permissibility of polygamy under customary law extends to statutory marriages,” she said.
The AWLA president further noted that this had consequently led some individuals who are validly married under the Marriage Act, to proceed and contract additional customary unions with perceived impunity.
She said on the whole, the net effect was a wide gap between the law on the books and the law in practice, adding that this had undermined the deterrent purpose of the provisions on bigamy. (NAN)
