MUHAMMAD JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the Lagos State High Court delivered on 22nd March, 2001 in suit No. ID/432/99. The hardly disputed facts of the case that brought about the appeal are hereunder supplied.
Engineer Theophilus I. O. Nzegwu got married to Grace O. Nzegwu, the 1st respondent, on 28th June, 1958 in London. 2nd and 3rd respondents are the surviving issues of the marriage. The marriage broke down in the course of time. By their petition and cross petition in suit No. 0/16D/95 , parties eventually asked for the dissolution of the marriage. The Anambra
State High Court sitting at Onitsha granted a decree nisi dissolving the marriage. This was on 30th September, 1986.
Before then, Engineer Nzegwu had purportedly married the appellant under native law and custom on 7th July, 1995. The purported marriage was solemnized and celebrated under the Act in Lagos on 23rd October, 1996. Appellant did not know of the existence of the …