Register Your Customary Marriages To Tie Men

An Accra-based lawyer, Paul Atitsogbui Parker, has urged women to force men to register customary marriages under the ordinance marriage laws to prevent them from taking extra women (wives) at their pleasure.

Speaking on Adom TV, Mr. Parker urged Ghanaian women to register their customary marriages under ordinance marriage and not under the PNDC Law 112.

According to him, registering your marriage under the PNDC Law 112 does not make your marriage a valid one in the sight of the law.

The lawyer’s comments follow the case of a depressed woman whose husband has gone in for another woman to whom he is now legally married.

The window existed for the man to marry because his first marriage was a customary one, granting him the legal space to marry another woman.

But Lawyer Parker explained that the marriage should have gone through a conversion.

“The marriage did not go through ‘conversion’”, he explained, adding that customary marriage allows a man to marry as many as he can.

Explaining what constitutes a converted marriage into the ordinance based on a question posed by host Afia Pokua, he said signing at the court and the 21-day of public notification are the main keys to tell a genuine conversion of marriage.

Lawyer Parker urged everybody, especially women to register their marriages at the court under ordinance marriage and not under PNDC Law 112 so they don’t find themselves wanting at the end.