Despite announcing his return as Speaker, 36 out of the 40 lawmakers in Lagos State House of Assembly have rejected Mudashiru Obasa.
The Lagos House of Assembly lawmakers in a video making the rounds were seen gathering in front of the House while addressing the media and registering their displeasure over the behavior of former Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa on Thursday afternoon.
ENigeria Newspaper reports that Obasa arrived the Lagos House of Assembly complex in a gestapo manner, with security aides shooting sporadically in the air, before finding his way to the Office of the Speaker which he eventually gained entry into. His action suggests that the peace moves of the Olusegun Osoba led panel dispatched by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have failed.
In a video seen by this newspaper, was in the company of a retinue of uniformed and armed Police Officers, an indication that his security aides have been restored, this is as there were indications on Thursday afternoon that the Police had pulled back all officers attached to Speaker, Mojisola Meranda.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday afternoon, shortly after Obasa’s exit from the Assembly complex, spokesperson for the House, Olukayode Ogundipe, flanked by other pro-Meranda colleagues, said they were in shock and embarrassed by the development.
“We are shocked to see what is happening today and we are still expecting them (party leadership) to come and tell us where we went wrong. We won’t take laws into our hands, just like I told the staff members. But we all belong to different constituencies and we have our mandate and whatever happens, the leadership should speak with us and not this charade that we are seeing.
“We are not happy and we are already demystified. We’ve been law-abiding, we’ve not gone out of our ways, we’ve not done anything against the state or anybody but we also want to be respected, to be given our dignity, to be shown that we were elected. So, I’m appealing to the leadership of our party that we cannot continue this way.
“What we’re seeing today is an embarrassment because for me to even enter the gate, I was stopped and told by security operatives that I couldn’t enter the House of Assembly. It’s an embarrassment and this must stop.
“We are not against the leadership’s decision, but they should call us and tell it to our face and not us hearing rumours. We are not against the leadership position, they nominated us and we still stand by their decisions but not to do it this way; we are embarrassed,” Ogundipe said.
Shortly after Ogundipe’s address, the lawmakers chanted: “We hereby reject Obasa, we reject him in totality!”
What is left to be seen is where the drama leads from here, as indeed Lagos is in for more dramatic turns of events.
