The Lagos
State Government yesterday gave a seven-day ultimatum to boat operators and
dredgers to align their operations with the July 18 ruling of the Court of
Appeal
regarding control of inland waterways.
The
Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Lagos, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem,
spoke during a press briefing jointly addressed by officials of the Ministries
of Waterfront Infrastructure Development and Justice.
Kazeem said
that the Lagos State government was very pleased with the outcome of the suit
that reaffirmed the constitutional right of a state government to control its
inland waterways.
“There have
been varied attempts by those who lost out in this judgment to whittle down the
effect of the judgment but we are unperturbed and believe strongly that the
judgment is very clear and the constitution is also very clear on this issue,”
he declared.
He said that
the state government was not out to antagonise anybody but we would be un-cowed
and fiercely protective of its God-given resources and would never relent in
championing the cause of true fiscal federalism in the country.“If it is the
wish of NIWA to challenge the right of the Lagos State government to control
its resources at the Supreme Court, we say we are ready. However, until this
judgment is set aside it remains good law and will be fully enforced by the
Lagos State government and my office and the relevant government agencies,” he
said.
Similarly,
the Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Adebowale
Akinsanya, said a seven-day ultimatum had been issued to all dredging and
related activities within and along Lagos Inland Waterways to regularise their
operations with the agency of the state government.
Akinsanya
said the order would be enforced aggressively until a proper inventory of
environmental degradation suffered by the environment had been taken while a
state policy would be made on it.Akinsanya urged all boat and dredging
operators to fully comply accordingly as failure to heed this directive would
attract appropriate stiff sanctions.
“All
registration of boats, reclamation, dredging and others should be by the Lagos
State government,” Akinsanya said.Lawyers who spoke to The Guardian said the
Appeal Court’s ruling has renewed confidence in the ability of the judiciary to
ensure justice as more and more Nigerians demand fiscal federalism.
The lawyers
said the verdict delivered on July 18, 2017 affirmed the right of Lagos to
control its resources as they relate to the inland waterways, describing the
judgment as “a big win for federalism.”
Some
organisations on the platform of the Incorporated Trustees of the Association
of Tourist Boat Operators and the Incorporated Trustees Dredgers Association of
Nigeria had taken the Lagos State Government and other parties to the Federal
High Court in 2012 seeking a determination on whether it should pay fees to the
Federal Government represented by the National Inland Waterways Agency (NIWA)
or the Lagos State Government represented by the Lagos State Waterways
Authority (LASWA).
Two years
after, in 2014, Justice Sakiu Saidu had ruled that NIWA by virtue of its
enabling act has a clear mandate to manage the nation’s vast inland waterways
exclusively. The judge also said that LASWA was an illegal creation, as the
laws of the country did not recognise it, because LASWA was a creation of the
Lagos House of Assembly, which repealed the NIWA Act for it to be in existence.
But not
satisfied with the ruling of the court, the Lagos State government decided to
appeal the ruling of the High Court and the Appeal Court on July 18, 2017 said
Lagos has powers over its inland waterways.
The court
ruled: “No doubt, the common radical denominator is the scope of waterways
cutting across international and state boundaries coupled with a declaration by
the National Assembly that such waterways are international or interstate
respectively. The more obvious areas of coverage under the exclusive list are
the sea tidal waters and marine ports declared by the National Assembly to be
federal ports. But one finds nothing on the exclusive list dealing with
intra-state waterways either in Lagos or any other state in the federation.
“The burden
is on the respondents to show that any of the lagoons, creeks or waterways used
for intra-state navigation has run across the parameters of Lagos State into
international or interstate boundaries and is so declared in a law promulgated
by the National Assembly.
“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 one to the second schedule of the constitution.”
Guardian*
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