Human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has urged the Lagos State Government to suspend the proposed resumption of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, saying that restricting residents’ movement for the exercise would violate an existing court order.
Adegboruwa said the policy had earlier been nullified by the Federal High Court in 2015 and that the matter is still pending before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
As such, he maintained that the state government could not lawfully proceed with plans to revive the programme.
The lawyer called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to immediately suspend the planned resumption of the exercise in respect of the rule of law and the authority of the court.
According to him, a motion on notice filed at the registry of the Supreme Court on 22 July 2024, seeks an order of injunction restraining the governor and other respondents from restricting his movement and that of other Lagos residents on the last Saturday or any other day of every month for environmental sanitation purposes, pending the determination of the appeal before the apex court.
The application also seeks an order restraining the respondents from arresting or detaining him and other residents for alleged non-compliance with the sanitation policy while the appeal remains unresolved.
Adegboruwa’s motion, signed by the Deputy Head of Chambers (Litigation) at Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN & Co., Oluwatosin Adesioye, lists 15 grounds in support of the request.
His position followed recent reports indicating that the Lagos State Government is considering bringing back the monthly environmental sanitation exercise.
Also, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has criticised the decision of Lagos State Government to reintroduce the monthly environmental sanitation exercise that restricts movement for three hours on the last Saturday of every month.
Falana described the policy as a ‘sad reminder’ of what he called one of the primitive practices inherited from Nigeria’s defunct military regimes.
In a statement at the weekend while reacting to the move, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said that the planned reintroduction of the sanitation exercise could not be justified, particularly in view of the state’s environmental budget.
He noted that the 2026 Appropriation Law of Lagos State allocated about N236 billion to environmental matters, including urban waste management and sanitation, stressing that lawmakers had approved the funds to improve waste management systems across the state.
