Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, has told the protesting students demonstrating and blocking the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway, that they are “violating the law.”
“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,” Mr Fashola asserted on Wednesday. “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,”
Public university students under the aegis of the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Tuesday, began a protest on the
expressway, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime to end the
protracted ASUU strike.
The action of the university students had led to heavy
gridlock at the Sagamu Interchange, leaving many travelers and motorists plying
the route stranded for several hours.
Addressing State House Correspondents after the weekly
Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, Mr Fashola said that the country’s
Constitution, though, recognises the rights of the citizens to protest but does
not empower anyone to ‘inflict pains’ on others.
He pleaded with motorists using the route to exercise
patience saying that there was no alternative to the road.
“There is very little room for alternative routes for
people. So, you just have to bear with us,” the minister said.
The protesting students had lamented the seven-months-old
strike that has crippled academic activities in the country’s public
universities.