#EndBadGovernance: Stop rushing to court on eve of protests, Falana tells govts

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has faulted the governments of Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory Administration for rushing to court to seek orders restricting protesters to certain locations within the states and the FCT.

The senior lawyer stated this during an interview on Thursday evening on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

According Online reports that the various state governments, and the FCTA, had obtained court orders from individual states and Federal High Courts, restricting the protesters to the Freedom and Peace Parks in the Ojota and Ketu areas of Lagos State; and the MKO National Stadium in the FCT.

In Ogun, the court restricted the protesters to the MKO Stadium in Abeokuta; Ansar-ud-Deen Comprehensive High School Ota; Remo Divisional High School, Sagamu; and Dipo Dina Stadium, Ijebu-Ode.

Giving reasons for the protesters going beyond the stated restricted points to a street procession, Falana said the argument could be made that the protesters were not served the court orders, having been obtained 24 hours before the protest began on Thursday morning.

He said, “I think the government should have learnt not to rush to court on the eve of a strike action by workers, or the eve of a protest by young people because the difficulty with such orders is that they are never served on those they are made to restrain.

“For instance, the order in Lagos was not served on anybody, the orders in Ogun State were not served on anybody, the order in Abuja, I think one of the defendants is said to be ‘unknown persons. Now, how do you serve court orders on unknown persons?”

He added that the government could designate venues for protest, as it is done in other countries of the world, noting that the government had over two weeks advance notice of the protest, which was enough time to have informed the protesters of the restrictions, without a necessary court order.

“In Lagos, largely today from my information, people came from as far as about 30-40km away to participate in the protest in Ojota. Again, that is the venue that was being used for protest, before the government sealed it off.

“Ditto for Abuja, protesters were using an enclosure, the Unity Fountain; it is a stone’s throw from Transcorp Hilton Hotel. The government in Abuja, the FCT Administration sealed it off. So, people then went to the street.

“If the government is now coming back to say in every state capital, we want to designate a venue, a protest ground as is done in many countries of the world, again, I think that is a lesson to learn.

“But don’t rush to court, when you have at least two weeks’ notice of an impending protest. Don’t rush to court on the eve of that protest because even if the court makes that order, it’s not going to be served on people practically”, he added.