An Akwa Ibom High Court on Friday dismissed the legal action instituted by the Atheist Society of Nigeria (ASN) against the Akwa Ibom State Government over the building of multi-million International Christian Worship Centre in the state for lack of merit.
The Chief Judge Justice Godswill Abraham who dismissed the case after eight month of judicial trial also awarded N500,000 costs against the Atheist Society of Nigeria.
Reacting after the judgment, the Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Uwemedimo Nwoko noted that the section of the constitution that ASN had relied on didnโt cover them.
โThey have no jurisdiction to raise the issue because the Atheist definition of dictionary suggests people who do not believe existence of any Supreme Being capable of being worship by anybody.
โThe provision they are seeking to rely on the constitution is dealing with the right of government or prohibition of declaration of a state religion in Nigeria.
โAkwa Ibom State has not declared Christianity as state religion but that does not take anything from the fact that Akwa Ibom state is a Christian state because the population is make up of over 99.9 percent of Christian.
โWe have the right to choose to build a Christian worship centre in Akwa Ibom State; beautiful enough the court has agreed with us that they have no locus standard to challenge the action of government.
โIf any other group decide to have a worship centre and they approach government where there is resources government can also build a worship centre for them,โ the Attorney General stated.
President of ASN, Adebayo Opadeyi said the next line of action of the body will be decided after due consultation with their lawyers with a view to lodging an appeal.
Opadeyi, in a statement with his Secretary, Freeborn Amadi immediately after the judgment stressed that the case was a battle to clarify a stateโs constitutional obligation to distance itself from matters of religion.
โThe constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria prohibits the entanglement of religion and state, yet in Akwa Ibom State, an enormous 8,500-seat worship centre is under construction.
โToday (Friday) the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo Judicial Division failed to rule this entanglement of religion and state unconstitutional.
โThis is a bleak day for religious freedom in Nigeria. This is license for states and the Federal Government to use public money to support their preferred religions and to discriminate against other religions.โ they posited.
