The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said the protesting National Association of Nigerian Students violated the law by blocking the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
According to Vanguard, Fashola said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the week’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) presided over the FEC meeting at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Punch Metro reported that NANS yesterday vows to protest against the over 6-month strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union Of Universities.
Following through with their agitation, NANS embarked on the protest just after the Sagamu Interchange section of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, towards Lagos.
The protesting students carried placards with different inscriptions, chanting solidarity songs as they lamented the strike by ASUU, which has been prolonged for seven months.
They vowed to lay siege on the major highway and others to drive home their demand to end the strike.
However, Fashola reacting to the protest said the Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) recognizes and protects citizens’ right to public protests but does not empower any Nigerian to “inflict pain and inconvenience on other people.”
He said “Once again, I apologise and empathise with commuters who need that place to get on with their lives. It’s the place we left to the last really because it’s the most built-up area, the last six kilometers into Lagos; very densely populated and occupied. There’s very little room for alternative routes for people. So, you just have to bear with us.
“I also heard that some aggrieved students under the aegis of NANS are going to the road to protest. My respectful view is that is not helpful at all to the citizens.
“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. 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.”
