Mark Itsibor
A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos State has stopped monthly environmental sanitation exercise held on every last Saturday of the month in Lagos State.
Delivering judgement in a suit filed by Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, human rights activist and Lawyer who challenged the legality of the 3 hours restriction, Justice Mohammed Idris held on Monday that the exercise is a breach of the constitutional freedom of movement for everyone without a law in force in the State by which any citizen could be kept indoors, “compulsorily.”
Voiding the illegal exercise, the court maintained that Sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which guarantees rights of everyone cannot be withdrawn by mere executive proclamation.
Adegboruwa had approached the court to challenge section 39 of the state’s Environmental Sanitation Law, 2000 under which the state and its agents enforced the exercise.
The applicant asked the court to declare that the State Government and its agents do not have the legal backing to restrict movement of the residents
Jonathan Ogunsanya, counsel to the state cited section 41 of the country’s Constitution as a reference that allows government to make laws that may derogate from the right to freedom of movement.
Further, Ogunsanya maintained that the restriction of people and vehicular movement from 7-10am helps to keep society and environment clean and safe.
Applauding the judgement, Adegboruwa expressed commitment to the struggle to eradicate all forms of arbitrariness and impunity from the society.
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