Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun Adegboruwa, has described as illegal and unconstitutional the directive of the Lagos State Government for citizens to stay indoors on the last Saturday of every month.
In a press release made available to journalists, he said that in the forceful enforcement of the directive, the government deployed all its arsenals, including law enforcement agencies, LASTMA, health officers, and even ‘area boys’ to harass, intimidate, and threaten innocent citizens from the lawful exercise of their fundamental and constitutional rights to move freely during the sanitation exercise today.
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According to Adegboruwa, the government claims to rely on a particular health law of 2017, which it had refused to publish or make available to the public for confirmation and scrutiny.
“For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, there is currently no law in force in Lagos State which permits the government to restrict the movement of persons for the purpose of enforcing monthly environmental sanitation,” the senior lawyer said.
He, therefore, challenged the government to publish such a law, if it exists at all.
For him, a megacity like Lagos does not need to force citizens indoors for two hours in the name of sanitation if the government gets its acts together for positive policy direction and implementation.
He also described as archaic and anachronistic the claim of the government to position the state for global recognition and to, at the same time, cling to what he called the relics of dictatorial policies of the inglorious military era and discarded methods of cleanliness which are not in tandem with best global practices.
The SAN concluded that a government voted into power by the people should not turn around to deploy brute force to compel the people into submission and to abuse state power to oppress the people and keep them indoors against their will.
The Lagos State Government had directed residents across the five divisions of the state to remain indoors and participate in the monthly environmental sanitation exercise scheduled for Saturday, April 25, between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, urged residents to clean their surroundings and clear drainage channels in front of their homes before proceeding with other activities after the exercise.
He explained that the reintroduction of the monthly sanitation exercise followed sustained calls from residents advocating for a dedicated time to maintain cleanliness in their communities.
The commissioner also said that the exercise had not been nullified by any court pronouncement.
