By Henry Odu-
A High Court in Ibadan, Nigeria has for the third time adjourned a legal hearing into a raging dispute over the banning of the Hijab in a private school where the issue has split Christians and Muslims parents.
The case which has been ongoing since 2018 saw the international school of five decades close down twice over a dispute in which Muslim parents were insisting that their children should be allowed to wear the Hijab to school.
The Muslim parents claim the refusal to allow their children wear the Hijab breaches their human rights , according to the News Agency Of Nigeria. The chief respondent Olutayo’s through his representative, Mr. Jide Owoyemi, also filed an application for extensions of time to allow him to file his processes and urged the court to grant it.
The respondents in the legal suit are the University of Ibadan, School Principal, Mrs. Phebean Olowe, the Chairman, Board of Governors, Prof. Abideen Aderinto and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) and three others.
One reason for the requested extension was also because Mr. Hassan Fagimite, who was served with an application for an extension of time, said he is yet to respond to it on the point of law.
Fagimite’s stance on behalf of the Muslim parents is that the hijab ban of the school authority is in violation of the applicants’ rights to freedom of thought, religion and right to education as contained in section 38 (1)(a) and 42(1)(a) of the constitution.
Justice Laniran Akintola granted the application for extension of time and adjourned the hearing of the preliminary objection till June 25. At an earlier hearing in January Judge Akintola had appealed to the disputing parties to seek an out of court settlement, but a later hearing in May proved the idea a waste of time. and urged both parties to live in peace and not ”create unnecessary tension or heat up the polity” of the country .
The adjourned case should have been heard today, but the preliminary hearing has again been adjourned until July 25,
ther respondents in the suit are the University of Ibadan, School Principal, Mrs. Phebean Olowe, the Chairman, Board of Governors, Prof. Abideen Aderinto and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) and three others.