The Federal Government has said protesting students who blocked a busy section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are “violating” the law.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, stated this while briefing State House correspondents shortly after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today.

Fashola noted that the Nigerian constitution recognises and protects the citizens’ right to public protests but does not empower any Nigerian to “inflict pain and inconvenience on other people.”

A protest staged by members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Tuesday led to a gridlock on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, leaving motorists and passengers stranded.

The protest took place just after the Sagamu Interchange section of the expressway, towards Lagos.

Students carried placards chanting solidarity songs as they lamented the now seven-month-old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

They laid siege to the major highway and others to drive home their demand to end the strike.

But fielding a question on the recurrent gridlock on the uncompleted sections of the highway, Fashola appealed for more patience from Nigerians saying that there is no alternative route in the already built-up areas.