A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a suit filed by a former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Dr. Monday Ubani, seeking to stop the army, police, and other security agencies from erecting many roadblocks on the Lagos-Southeast routes.
Ubani had sued the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) for alleged links with the proliferation of such road blocks.
The NBA official is seeking a declaration that the proliferation of intra-state and highways with road blocks mounted by their officers on the Lagos-Southeast route, had resulted in obstruction of free movement in the highway and loss of travel time.
He described the development as a violation of his right to free and undisrupted movement, as guaranteed by Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution and other enabling laws.
Also joined in the suit as co-respondents are: the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Customs Service Board, the Nigerian Army, and the FRSC.
Other prayers that Ubani is praying the court to grant him include a declaration that the proliferation of intra-state and highway roadblocks, particularly en route Lagos to the Southeast obstructs free flow of traffic, constitutes a nuisance, causes untold hardship, and unwarranted suffering to him and other road users.
The lawyer prayed the court to declare the roadblocks as unlawful and without legal justification.
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He also prayed for an order directing the respondents to dismantle all roadblocks on intra-state roads and highways throughout the country, particularly those on the Southeast route.
Delivering judgment in the suit, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke held that there was a proliferation of roadblocks the Lagos-Southeast route, which made the applicant and other users to spend hours on the road.
Justice Aneke also held that the right to free movement of the applicant was derogated upon due to the constitutional powers the President and the security agencies have to take to secure the country.
But the court was silent on Ubani’s concern that the roadblocks were proliferated on the Southeast routes and minimal on routes to other parts of the country.
Justice Aneke held that the road blocks mounted by the second to the ninth respondents, which clearly restrict the right to freedom of movement of the applicant and other road users, did not, by that reason, alone violate the applicant’s fundamental rights.
Ubani has said he would appeal the judgment or return to court with a modification of his reliefs.