The Federal Government has said protesting students who blocked a busy section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway “violated” the law.
Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, said this while intimating State House correspondents shortly after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting directed by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
Fashola stated that the Nigerian constitution recognises and protects the citizens’ right to public protests but does not authorize any Nigerian to “inflict pain and inconvenience on other people.”
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Information Nigeria reported that a protest by members of the National Association of Nigerian Students on Tuesday created gridlock on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, leaving motorists and passengers helpless.
“I also heard that some aggrieved students under the aegis of NANS are going to the road to protest. My respectful view is that it is not helpful at all to the citizens.
“The right to protest is a very well-protected right in our constitution, but it does not include the right to inflict pain and inconvenience on other people. And so, whilst the protests can go on, they should refrain from blocking the road in order to do their protests. That in itself is a violation of law,” he explained.
