*Challenges Government To Publish The Law It Claims To Rely On
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Senior Advocate of Nigeria Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has declared the Lagos State Government’s forceful restriction of movement for monthly environmental sanitation plainly illegal and unconstitutional, challenging the government to publish the law it claims authorises the policy and telling Lagosians that no resident should suffer any penalty or disability for ignoring what he described as a relic of military-era dictatorship that has no place in a democratic society.
In a press release issued on Saturday, Adegboruwa condemned the Lagos State Government’s enforcement of the monthly sanitation exercise, describing the deployment of law enforcement agencies, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, health officers, and what he called “area boys (agberos)” to harass, intimidate, and threaten innocent citizens as a violation of fundamental and constitutional rights to freedom of movement.
“On Saturday, April 25, 2026, Lagosians were forced to stay in their homes by the Lagos State Government under the guise of enforcement of monthly environmental sanitation,” Adegboruwa stated.
“For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, there is currently no law in force in Lagos State which permits the government to restrict movement of persons for the purpose of enforcing monthly environmental sanitation. I challenge Lagos State Government to publish such a law, if at all it exists,” the senior advocate declared.
Adegboruwa’s intervention centres on a direct legal challenge: show the law or stop the enforcement.
He acknowledged that the government claims to rely on a particular health law of 2017 but noted that the law has never been published or made available to the public for confirmation and scrutiny.
“The government claims to rely on a particular health law of 2017, which it has refused to publish or make available to the public for confirmation and scrutiny,” Adegboruwa stated.
The challenge is significant because in a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law, the government cannot restrict citizens’ fundamental rights except through a law that is publicly available, clearly stated, and consistent with the Constitution. A law that citizens cannot read, verify, or challenge is effectively a secret law, and enforcement based on secret law is the hallmark of authoritarian governance rather than democratic administration.
The right to freedom of movement is guaranteed under Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof. This right can only be derogated from by a law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society, a standard that Adegboruwa argues the sanitation lockdown does not meet.
Adegboruwa’s description of the enforcement apparatus painted a picture of disproportionate force deployed against civilians engaged in the lawful exercise of their rights.
“In forceful enforcement of this illegal policy, the government deployed all its arsenals, including law enforcement agencies, LASTMA, health officers and even area boys (agberos) to harass, intimidate and threaten innocent citizens from the lawful exercise of their fundamental and constitutional rights to move freely,” Adegboruwa stated.
The inclusion of “area boys” in the list of enforcement agents is particularly damning. If the government is indeed deploying informal street enforcers alongside official agencies to compel compliance with the sanitation exercise, it suggests a willingness to use extralegal force that goes beyond any statutory authority, even if the claimed 2017 law were valid.
The characterisation raises questions about accountability. Law enforcement officers, LASTMA officials, and health officers are at least nominally subject to institutional oversight and complaints mechanisms. Informal enforcers operating under government direction but without official status exist in an accountability vacuum where citizens who are harassed or assaulted have limited recourse.
Adegboruwa broadened his critique beyond the specific sanitation policy to challenge the moral authority of the Lagos State Government to impose cleanliness standards on citizens when its own governance record, in his assessment, falls short.
“It becomes morally and legally untenable for the same government that cannot organise simple waste evacuation, the same government that is actively sponsoring the discharge of human wastes into the Lagos Lagoon, the government that is unable to provide water for its citizens or guarantee their security and safety, to seek to enforce an unknown law,” Adegboruwa stated.
He then delivered his most biting observation: “The greatest dirt upon human existence is blind corruption and poor leadership which subjects citizens to mass hunger, untold suffering, turns them to victims of escalating violence, forces them into slavery and other menial jobs in foreign lands and reduces their income and capacity while imposing bogus taxes upon them without corresponding development.”
The passage reframes the concept of “sanitation” from the physical cleanliness of streets and compounds to the moral and governance cleanliness of the state itself, arguing that a government that fails in its fundamental duties of waste management, water provision, and citizen security lacks the standing to lecture citizens on environmental hygiene, let alone to restrict their movement in its name.
Adegboruwa situated the monthly sanitation lockdown within the broader history of military governance in Nigeria, describing it as a holdover from an era of authoritarian rule that should have been abandoned with the return of democracy.
“It is archaic and anachronistic to claim to position a state for global recognition and at the same time cling to the relics of dictatorial policies of the inglorious military era and discarded methods of cleanliness not in tandem with best global practices,” Adegboruwa stated.
The monthly environmental sanitation exercise was introduced during Nigeria’s military era as a compulsory nationwide programme that required citizens to stay indoors for several hours on designated days while they cleaned their surroundings. The programme was enforced through military checkpoints and patrols, with violators subject to arrest and punishment.
While the federal government eventually abandoned the compulsory nationwide sanitation exercise, some states, including Lagos, have continued the practice in modified forms. Adegboruwa’s characterisation of it as a “relic of dictatorial policies” challenges the continued relevance of a programme designed under military governance and imposed without democratic consent.
“In a mega city like Lagos, we do 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,” Adegboruwa stated.
He argued that modern approaches to environmental sanitation in comparable global cities do not involve restricting citizens’ movement but rather focus on effective waste management systems, public education, consistent enforcement of environmental regulations, and investment in sanitation infrastructure.
Adegboruwa’s most pointed political observation addressed the fundamental contradiction between democratic governance and forceful restriction of citizens’ rights.
“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 wish,” Adegboruwa stated.
The statement frames the sanitation lockdown not as a public health measure but as an exercise of state power over citizens, a periodic demonstration that the government can restrict the most basic of freedoms, the freedom to leave one’s home, at will and without effective legal authority.
Adegboruwa concluded with a direct message to Lagosians about their legal position.
“The directive upon citizens to stay indoors on the last Saturday of every month is plainly illegal and unconstitutional and no resident of Lagos State should suffer any penalty or disability for ignoring such illegal policy,” the senior advocate stated.
The statement amounts to legal advice from one of Nigeria’s most senior lawyers to the entire population of Lagos State: the sanitation lockdown has no legal force, compliance is voluntary, and any penalty imposed for non-compliance is itself unlawful.
Whether Lagosians will act on this advice, given the practical reality of law enforcement officers, LASTMA officials, and alleged agberos patrolling the streets during sanitation hours, is another question. The gap between legal rights and practical reality is often wide in Nigeria, and a citizen who asserts their constitutional right to move freely during sanitation hours may find that their rights offer little protection against an officer who has been instructed to enforce compliance.
However, Adegboruwa’s intervention places the legal argument clearly on record and creates a foundation for any citizen who is arrested, fined, or harassed during the sanitation exercise to challenge the legality of the enforcement action in court.
At its core, Adegboruwa’s statement addresses a principle that extends beyond the specific sanitation policy: the limits of government power in a constitutional democracy.
“Cleanliness should be part and parcel of human life and there is no need for threat and intimidation to keep to all reasonable standards of public and private hygiene,” the senior advocate stated.
The observation is both practical and philosophical. Environmental sanitation is a desirable public good that any responsible government should promote. But promoting it through education, incentives, and effective waste management systems is fundamentally different from promoting it through the restriction of fundamental rights, the deployment of enforcement agents, and the implicit threat of punishment for those who dare to leave their homes on a Saturday morning.
The question Adegboruwa poses to the Lagos State Government is whether it can achieve its sanitation objectives through democratic means rather than authoritarian methods, through governance rather than force, through service rather than compulsion.
His answer, delivered with the authority of a Senior Advocate and the conviction of a constitutional rights advocate, is that in a democracy, there is no other legitimate option.
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