By Achile Danjuma
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has condemned the Lagos State Government’s decision to reintroduce the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, calling it an unconstitutional throwback to military rule and a direct affront to a subsisting judgment of the Court of Appeal.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Falana criticized the policy, which would restrict resident movement for three hours on the last Saturday of every month, as a relic of Nigeria’s autocratic past with no place in a democracy governed by the rule of law.
“The decision of the Lagos State Government to reintroduce the sanitation exercise where the movement of Lagos residents is restricted for three hours… is a sad reminder of one of the primitive legacies of the defunct military junta in Nigeria,” Falana stated.
He argued that the measure is not only regressive but also fiscally indefensible, given the state’s substantial budgetary commitment to environmental management. Falana pointed to the 2026 Appropriation Law, in which the Lagos State Government allocated a significant N236 billion to the environment, covering areas including urban waste management and sanitation.
“The planned reintroduction of the monthly sanitation exercise cannot be justified in view of the fact that… the sum of N236bn was earmarked for the environment,” Falana said, adding that members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have previously voiced support for enhanced waste management systems rather than movement restrictions.
Instead of enforcing what he termed an “illegal exercise,” Falani urged the government to utilize its resources more effectively. “Instead of wasting precious time and resources on enforcing the illegal monthly sanitation exercise, the Lagos State Government ought to engage more cleaners and acquire mechanical sweepers for heavy debris and vacuum sweepers for fine dust and litter,” he advised.
Central to Falana’s argument is the 2016 Court of Appeal judgment in the case of Faith Okafor v. Lagos State Government, which he asserts the state government is willfully ignoring.
The case stemmed from the arrest of Lagos resident Faith Okafor on May 25, 2013, for allegedly violating the movement restriction during a previous sanitation exercise. She was arraigned, pleaded guilty, and was fined N2,000 by a special offences court. After challenging her arrest at a Lagos State High Court and losing, she appealed.
The Court of Appeal ruled decisively in her favour, declaring the restriction of movement and her subsequent prosecution illegal and unconstitutional. The appellate court held that a directive issued by a governor does not constitute a law and cannot be used to justify the arrest, prosecution, or conviction of citizens.
In a powerful concurring judgment, Justice Biobell Abraham Georgewill warned against allowing executive orders to supersede constitutional safeguards. “It is my view that democracy thrives more on obeying and promoting the rule of law rather than the whims and caprices of the leaders against the led,” the judge stated.
Justice Georgewill further condemned the state’s actions, saying, “I find the conduct of the respondent in not only prosecuting the appellant, yes that is what in my view it amounts to when a free citizen of this great country such as Citizen Faith Okafor, is put through the rigours of criminal process for an offence not prescribed in any written law but merely on the directive of the Governor of the Lagos State.”
He warned that subjecting citizens to criminal prosecution based on a governor’s directive rather than a written law could confer “infinite, absolute and autocratic powers” on public office holders.
Citing this binding precedent, Falana called on the Lagos State Government to abandon its proposal. “The Lagos State Government should not reintroduce the monthly sanitation exercise as it is highly contemptuous of the Court of Appeal,” he concluded.