You Can Now Move Freely During Environmental Sanitation In Lagos

To some people this is good news, while some believe it will simply make a lot of people abandon their roles of tidying up their environment all in the name of walking freely during the exercise. Well a Federal High Court in Lagos has stopped the restriction of people moving freely during the last Saturday’s monthly exercise in Lagos. Here's how Punch reports it.

A Federal High Court in Lagos has declared as unlawful the restriction of citizens’ movement during the Lagos monthly environmental sanitation exercise.

Justice Mohammed Idris, in a judgment delivered on Monday, held that such restriction of movement in the name of sanitation amounted to a violation of the citizens’ right to personal liberty and freedom of movement as protected by sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution.

He therefore voided the power of the Lagos State Government and its agents to arrest any citizen found moving between 7am and 10am on the last Saturday of every month when the environmental sanitation exercise is observed.

Idris held, “I have no doubt that the restrictions imposed on the movement of persons and sanctions meted out to those who breach them are clearly unsupportable in law and unjustified.

“I must state loud and clear that the environmental sanitation exercise is not in itself unlawful, but what is unlawful and unconstitutional is the restriction imposed by the respondents during the exercise.

“I hold that the rights of the applicant guaranteed under Section 35 and 41 of the Constitution have been infringed upon by the respondents. The applicant is entitled to all of the reliefs sought and they are granted as prayed.”

A Lagos-based lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, had sued the Lagos State Government, its agents and the police asking the court to scrap the policy.

Adegboruwa, who said he commenced the action following his arrest on June 29, 2013 by agents of the state, argued that the restriction policy had continued to result in economic losses for the citizens who could not go about their businesses for three hours while the exercise was in force.