The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Muslim students, dismissing the lawsuit of the Lagos government over the ban on hijab for female students in government-owned schools.

On Friday, the apex court in Abuja dismissed an appeal by the government, ruling that the ban on hijab was discriminatory against Muslim students in Lagos.

The Supreme Court upheld that the ban violated the Muslim students’ rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, the dignity of human persons and freedom from discrimination guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.

The panel members included Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Justice John Inyang Okoro, Justice Uwani Aji, Justice Mohammed Garba, Justice Tijjani Abubakar, and Justice Emmanuel Agim.

Six Supreme Court justices ruled in favour of the use of hijab in schools, and one opposed it.

The lawsuit was filed in 2017 in the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal by the Lagos government. The state challenged the 2016 judgment that Muslim students could use hijab in Lagos-owned primary and secondary schools. The government argued that the hijab was not part of the approved school uniform for secondary and primary schools.

In May 2015, Asiyat AbdulKareem (through her father), Moriam Oyeniyi and the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria filed a suit against the government over banning the use of the hijab, 

However, the ban was later lifted by the government in 2018.