Two lawyers, Ikenna Okoli and Francis Moneke, have urged the Lagos State Government not to re-introduce a monthly environmental sanitation that will restrict movement.
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They said a 2016 Court of Appeal judgment which ruled that the state government has no power to do so, still stands.
Okoli is the Chairman, Human Rights and Empowerment Project Ltd/GTE (HREP), while Moneke is the group’s Executive Director.
Earlier this month, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu signed an Executive Order against indiscriminate and illegal dumping of waste.
On June 10, Sanwo-Olu debunked speculations on the purported resumption of monthly sanitation in the state, explaining that conversation on the return of the exercise was still a proposal.
In a statement to The Nation, the lawyers observed that former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode cancelled the monthly exercise following two appellate court judgments in Okafor vs Lagos State Government declaring it illegal.
HREP said: “That case, which was sponsored by HREP and prosecuted from the High Court of Lagos State up to the Court of Appeal by Ikenna Okoli, with a team of other lawyers as counsel for the appellant, laid to rest the issue of the propriety of restricting the movement of people for the reason of environmental sanitation.
“The Court of Appeal in that case reversed the earlier decision of the State High Court on the issue, and held that the fundamental right to freedom of movement which is constitutionally guaranteed under Section 41(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) cannot be taken away or curtailed by a mere executive order or policy, or even a law.
“Section 41(2) specifically mentions matters on which a law may be justified to restrict the movement of citizens. Environmental sanitation is certainly not a justifiable reason to restrict the fundamental right to freedom of movement.
“Nothing stops the Lagos State Government from running or implementing a seamless and robust sanitation policy without restricting the movement of people as it is done in other civilised nations.”
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