Restriction human and vehicular movements during elections by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) is illegal, human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has said.He stated that forcing people to stay indoors was contrary to the express provisions of the Nigerian constitution and other laws that guarantee freedom of movement to all citizens. According to him, it is beyond the IGP’s powers to forcibly keep people at home because of elections, since there was no law in force in Nigeria presently authorising such restriction of movement. “The Federal High Court of Nigeria, had occasion to pronounce on a similar illegal directive in the case of Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa v Inspector General of Police & five others, in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1690/2014,” he said in a statement. He stressed that in striking down the ‘odious practice,’ Justice Mohammed Idris held that the restriction imposed on the applicant and other residents of Lagos State during the environmental sanitation day without a law prescribing such restrictions was unjustifiable and a gross infringement on the right to personal liberty and movement of the applicant.

Source: The Guardian February 18, 2019 03:45 UTC