Lagos bans street parties

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos - 14.05.2008

Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on Monday signed into law, a bill banning the blocking of roads for any form of social or commercial activities in any part of the state.

The law makes it an offence for any person or group to obstruct traffic on any road in the state as a result of social or commercial activities.

By the provision of the law, anybody that obstructs a law enforcement agent of the state in the course of enforcing compliance to this law will be liable to a six-month jail term with an option of fine of N10, 000 or both.

During a ceremony before signing the bill, Governor Fashola said the law was significant in many ways, adding that it tried to address the problem created by the people by the way of life they had chosen for themselves.

“This is the only city or state in the nation where parties are held in the streets. I know of no other cosmopolitan city where this happens,” Fashola lamented, adding that the law would also encourage the building of function halls in the state.

The governor said such function halls and events places would ensure that the people continued with the celebrations they had adopted as a way of life.

“We cannot throw away our culture but we can do it in a more orderly manner and increase our life expectancy,” he said.

Fashola said the signing of the bill also re-inforced the commitment of his administration to bring to public domain, every law passed by the state government and information on why such law was passed, rather than do it within the confines of his office.

The governor, who said traffic management was a global phenomenon, said “we have brought in traffic lights and LASMA as well as the BRT all meant to solve traffic congestion to enable efficient flow of traffic.”