The crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly has escalated, with both Mudashiru Obasa and Mojisola Meranda claiming the Speakership. Compounding the turmoil, the Assembly now has two clerks – Ottun Babatunde and the suspended Olalekan Onafeko – each asserting authority, writes GBENGA OLONINIRAN
The leadership crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly has polarised the state legislative arm. At the moment, both Mudashiru Obasa and Mojisola Meranda are laying claims to the position of Speaker of the House.
The imbroglio revolves around the removal of Obasa on January 13, 2025, as Speaker of the House. Thirty-three lawmakers at the sitting on the fateful day removed Obasa and declared a former Deputy Speaker, Meranda, as Speaker.
Though the lawmakers cited abuse of office, financial misappropriations and misconduct as part of the reasons for Obasa’s removal, the decision marked the genesis of the crisis at the 10th Assembly.
Obasa was removed by the lawmakers while he was away in the United States of America. Upon his return to Lagos on January 25, 2025, he faulted his removal.
Despite the intervention of key chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, notably former governors of Osun and Ogun states, Chief Bisi Akande and Chief Olusegun Osoba, respectively, the leadership crisis was not resolved.
The Governance Advisory Council in the state has also been unable to resolve the crisis, with some members believing that only President Bola Tinubu can intervene effectively.
But despite the intervention of the Akande-led mediating panel drafted by Tinubu to resolve the issues, the crisis seems to have worsened. The panel had met with GAC members, party stakeholders in the state and the lawmakers, all to no avail.
Last Thursday, Obasa, who had been absent from the House since his removal, returned to the assembly complex in a shocking move.
The embattled former speaker arrived at the assembly complex accompanied by security officials and made his way into the Speaker’s Office around 9 am.
The move left many political stakeholders and the public in shock as the new turn of events threw the House into more confusion.
Earlier in the day, more security escorts were attached to Obasa by the police, the same morning when police officers attached to Meranda were withdrawn by the Lagos State Police Command.
Some speculators were of the view that the security escorts attached to Obasa on that day aided his entry into the House at a time when Meranda’s security escorts and the police officers attached to the assembly had been withdrawn.
“We don’t know why the authorities have done that, but all the police officers and other security details attached to her have been withdrawn. She’s on her own at the moment,” her aide, Victor Ganzallo, told Rushonline, lamenting that his principal was vulnerable.
But the police command, later in the evening, held a press conference to clarify the matter.
The newly redeployed Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Moshood Jimoh, cited personnel audit as the reason for the withdrawal of the security operatives.
“As I speak with you, the audit of the police personnel attached to Hon Mojisola Meranda has been completed, and the form-armed police personnel attached to her from the Nigeria State Police Command have been returned to her for her protection,” the commissioner said on Thursday evening.
“It is pertinent to state that the ongoing police personnel audit has been on for several days now, and prominent personalities and individuals have been complying with the process. The exercise, once again, is not aimed or targeted at any individuals,” the police commissioner added.
The police command stated that Obasa had also applied to request security protection due to alleged threats to his life.
In a statement signed by the command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, he stated that there was “an application from Hon Mudashiru Obasa on threats to his life and that of his family in the last few days, and it was on that basis that police personnel were assigned to him for protection only.”
The command maintained that it was “not aware of, nor involved in, how or when the office of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly was broken into.”
