By Innocent Anaba

A non-governmental organisation, Right and Environmental Project, HREP, has called on the states of the South East to be mindful of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, judgment, which held that the Lagos State Government has no right to restrict the movement of Nigerians resident in the state over the monthly environmental exercise.

Executive Director of HREP, Mr. Francis Moneke, who spoke through the lead lawyer that handled the case at the appellate court, Mr Ikenna Okoli, said that the governments of the South East states were infringing on the rights of people of the states by unconstitutionally restricting their movement  in the name of monthly environmental exercise.

He also commended the Lagos State Government for cancelling the compulsory monthly environmental sanitation in the state, after the Court of Appeal sitting in the state ruled against it.

He also urged other state governments of the South East to follow the path  Lagos State Government has followed, adding that, restriction of movement during environmental sanitation exercise was null, void, unconstitutional and violation of the freedom of the right to movement, as held by the Court of Appeal.

Okoli said, who addressed newsmen in Lagos, said “The action by Lagos State Government though commendable, was not a deliberate initiative by the state government but the outcome or result of a three year long, hard fought legal battle between Lagos State Government and citizen Faith Okafor represented by HREP.