By Monsuru Olowoopejo

LAGOS State Government has said no fewer than 5, 483 marriages were formalized at different registries’ in year 2014.

Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs, Mr. Ademorin Kuye who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard, said that these statistics represented the total number of marriages formalized at registries, saying “some must have been conducted through different religious institutions; and may not have been brought to government notice.”

According to him, “5, 483 marriages were formalized at different registries’ in year 2014. And I don’t know whether that is huge or not for the year under the review. We hope that more people will get their marriage formalized. “The marriage unit of the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs generated revenue into the state coffers through the issuance of 120 special licenses

“The control mechanism put in place by the ministry has helped reduced the proliferation of marriage institutions and curbed the activities of con-men who aimed to dupe innocent citizens,” Kuye added. The commissioner noted this further corroborated the statistics released by the state government that N 36 billion was spent annually by residents on merriment and entertainment in the state.

Kuye said the statistics was a product of a recent research conducted by the State’s Ministry of Economic Planning and Budgeting, saying “this justified the reason local Governments demand that anyone organising events in the state must pay the Merriment Tax.”  He stated that there was merriment tax in the constitution. It is part of the rate Local Governments can collect. We have not fully utilized the benefit of the entertainment industry in this state”.

He explained that this was the study of night life carried out by the government in five local governments including Agege, Mushin, Ifako-Ijaiye and Ikeja and another local government. It showed that more than N36 billion was spent on 1555 parties held within the period.