Despite court order, we’ll not stop collecting toll on Lekki bridge – Fashola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Wednesday described the Court ruling restraining the state government from regulating ferry services on its waterways as a disincentive to investment.
Fashola made this known to newsmen while marking the 2,500 days of his administration in office at Ikeja.
He said it was simple logic that state governments should regulate activities on their waterways and not the Federal Government or its agencies.
However, Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos had on Friday ruled that the state government had no constitutional right to regulate ferry services or collect fees on its waterways.
The judge gave the verdict in a suit instituted by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Tourist Boat Operators, Water Transporters of Nigeria and the Incorporated Dredgers Association of Nigeria.
The plaintiffs had filed the suit to seek an order of the court to stop the Lagos Inland Waterways Authority, an agency of the state government, from imposing fees on them.
However, Fashola insisted that the ruling lacked merit, noting that it would send wrong signals to would-be investors in water transportation.
He said: “In terms of investment, it is a very sad statement overall to our investment drive as a nation.
“It is contradictory that investors should come and at the same time, we are giving judgement against investment.
“The ruling lacked merit because water transportation is not different from road transportation.
“As every state has the capacity to run its bus system and taxi system within its territory, so should states run their water transportation system within their water bodies.
“I think it is simple logic and sensibility to expect that we should regulate the operations of ferries.”
Fashola said the ruling meant people paddling their canoes in creeks in the Niger Delta and other places needed permits to do so.
He said the regulation of all water transport activities in all the states by the central government would be near impossible.
On the ruling restraining the state government from collecting tolls on the Lekki/Ikoyi Link bridge, Fashola said the state government had filed an appeal against it.
He said tolling on the bridge would continue until the Court of Appeal decided on the matter.
He said: “We have filed an appeal on the Lekki/Ikoyi Bridge and we have also filed a motion to stay execution of that judgement.
“What my knowledge of law tells me is that until such a time the court decides on the stay of execution, the judgement remains temporarily in abeyance.”