Rivers: Lawyers Fault Restriction Of Movement During Monthly Sanitation Exercise

Legal practitioners have criticised the Rivers State Waste Management Agency’s (RIWAMA) decisions regarding the reintroduced monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the state.

The chairman of the RIWAMA board, Dr. Samuel Nwanosike, announced last Friday that vehicular and human movements will be restricted from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. during the exercise, which will be held on every last Saturday of the month.

Speaking on the development, a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Chizzy Enyi, faulted the directive, especially vehicular and human movement.

Enyi insisted that the directive violates citizens’ rights, saying that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had already ruled against such restrictions.

He questioned the legal authority of RIWAMA to issue movement passes, even to essential workers.

Another legal practitioner, Ndamzi Egwulor, also spoke on the development and described the restriction as unconstitutional and illegal.

Egwulor reminded RIWAMA that Justice Omotosho of the Federal High Court had already delivered a judgement, describing such restrictions as unlawful.

“The RIWAMA Act 2014 can’t be superior to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Federal High Court, in the case of Barrister Princewill Azubike versus the Attorney-General of Rivers State, RIWAMA and Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Justice Omotosho ruled that the restriction of movement in Rivers State on the last Saturday of every month, under the guise of environmental sanitation exercise is illegal, unconstitutional and we should be guided in whatever that we do,” he said.