Inland waterway: Falana wants FG to respect Appeal Court verdict on Lagos

A legal luminary, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, has called on the Federal government to obey the Court of Appeal verdict that accorded Lagos State government right to control Intra-Inland waterways.

Falana. who commended the Court of Appeal over what he described as a historic judgment urged Lagos State Government and other State governments to continue to challenge the constitutional validity of all Decrees enacted by the defunct military junta which have turned Nigeria into a unitary state.

The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had on July 18, 2017, delivered the car in a suit filed by the Lagos State Waterways Authority & Ors. v. The Incorporated Trustees of Association of Tourist Boat Operators & Water Transportation in Nigeria.

Delivering the judgment in Suit No: CA/L/886/2014, Justice Hussein Mukhtar held that, “the glaring absence of the Lagos State intra-waterways in the Exclusive Legislative List under Part 1 as well as the Concurrent Legislative List under Part 2 of the Second Schedule to the Constitution, means that it is automatically a residuary item that falls within the legislative competence of the Lagos State House of Assembly.”

The court held that “Item 64 is couched in no narrower scope as it deals with water from such sources declared by the National Assembly to be sources affecting more than one State.

The inland waterways within Lagos State are not and cannot by any stretch of interpretation be covered by any item on the Exclusive Legislative List under Part 1 to the Second Schedule of the Constitution and I so hold.”

Falana in a statement condemned the demonstration of brazen impunity, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Mohammed Abass which had directed dredgers illegally licenced by the Federal Government to disregard the clear and unambiguous judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Falana in the light of the constitutional duty imposed on the Buhari Administration to operate under the rule of law charged the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN and the Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi to call Mr. Mohammed Abass to order without any further delay.

“It is indubitably clear from the above judgment that the Court of Appeal has rightly upheld the constitutional right of the Lagos State House of Assembly to make laws in respect of the intra-inland waterway in Lagos State.

Accordingly, the federal government lacks the power to authorize dredgers to mine any resources in the intra-inland waterways in Lagos State” Falana added.