FASHOLA
A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, has struck out a suit instituted by an association representing commercial motorcyclists in Lagos against the ban of motorcycles, popularly known as ‘okada’ on major highways in the state. It struck out the suit seeking to overturn their ban on Thursday morning. The commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) had challenged the state’s traffic law banning their operation on federal roads in the state.
Justice Aishat Opesanwo in her judgment held that the Lagos State House Of Assembly has the right to make laws governing roads within the state. She held that from the evidence before her, the Lagos state traffic law did not in anyway prohibit freedom of movement as alleged by okada riders.
“From the evidence before me, I do not see how the Lagos State Traffic Law prohibits the movement of citizens in the state. The law only prohibits certain means and mode of movement for security and safety reasons. The Nigerian Constitution clearly prohibits any restriction to movement of citizens but not inanimate objects such as motorcycle,” she said.
Justice Opesanwo also held that the argument by the Okada riders that the Lagos Traffic law discriminate against them, lacks merit as she could not find in any of the affidavits put before her, how they were discriminated upon.
She held that the Nigerian Constitution only makes for discrimination on the ground of sex, state of origin, religion, ethnic group and that since the Okada riders do not fall in any of these groups, they cannot claim that they were discriminated upon by the enactment of the Lagos traffic law.
She also noted that Okada Riders in the state do not constitute a community and has not been in anyway discriminated upon.
Dismissing the action, she said ” I hold that this action is lacking in merit. The action fails and is hereby dismissed in its entirety”
The Okada riders had asked the court to restrain the state government from prohibiting their
operations on the highways. The state government and the House of Assembly had opposed the suit, saying they had the power to make and execute laws on all the roads in the state.They had argued that there was no law passed by the National Assembly declaring any road to be federal.
A former Attorney-General of the state, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in defending the Assembly, argued that the 1999 constitution only empowers the National Assembly to designate
roads as “federal trunk roads”.
He said, “As required by part III paragraph 1 to the Second Schedule, the National Assembly can only designate or declare a road as federal trunk road either by an Act or a
resolution passed by both houses of the National Assembly.
“Accordingly, the second defendant urges this court to hold that the House of Assembly validly exercised its powers to make law in respect of these highways.”
In a swift reaction to the judgment , Counsel to the Okada riders, Bamidele Aturu said “While we respect the decision of the judge as a court of law, we disagree with the decision and we shall promptly seek redress on behalf of our clients at the Court of Appeal.
“As we have relentlessly made clear we do not think it is right to argue that there are no federal trunk roads in Lagos State as this may encourage the Federal Government to abandon maintenance of roads that we all know to be federal roads.
” This is what we meant when we argued that Lagos State Government was pursuing a pyrrhic victory by the argument. We salute the doggedness of our clients and their respect for the rule of law. They have shown very remarkably that we will not build democracy if we fail to challenge or test policies and laws of governments at all levels.
“We know that this is not the end of the matter. Citizens have many options at their disposal for challenging policies that they consider destructive of the ends of democracy and their existence. We shall leave our clients with the decision, while we pursue their appeal speedily”.
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