Lagos Assembly Crisis: Groups Call On Obasa To Step Down As Speaker, As EFCC Begins Investigation Of Alleged Corruption

By Akinwale Kasali

This is not the best of times for Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa and members of the House. The crisis in the Assembly gets messier by the day, and remain unabated.

The Speaker is presently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for alleged financial misappropriation, recklessness, abuse of office and several other allegations bothering on corruption.

In a petition recently sent to the office of the EFCC and addressed to the chairman of the commission with the title:

“PETITION AGAINST LAGOS STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY SPEAKER, MUDHASIRU OBASA ON GROSS FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT, CRIMINAL BREACH OF PUBLIC TRUST AND ABUSE OF OFFICE,” the Executive Director of Human Rights Monitoring Agenda HURMA, Comrade Buna Olaitan Isiak, claimed that popular demand necessitated the petition.

The Group is, however, demanding that Obasa steps down with immediate effect pending the time the anti-graft agency would finish its investigation on the allegation levelled  against him.

The Group in its statement said that: “Further to a popular demand by some members of the public to our office, this petition is written to acquaint your agency, EFCC, with the gross financial misconduct and the abuse of office being perpetrated by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honorable Mudashiru Obasa, for a thorough investigation so as to avert a further bleeding of the public treasury under his care and restore sanity in the functioning of the states legislative establishment.”

The petition reads further: “The Speaker’s desecration of his office for which a probe of his activities becomes necessary is in two-fold: One, his financial recklessness and cornering of public funds through illegitimate means; and two, the corruption and compromise of laid down procedures and rules deliberately foisted on the workforce of the Assembly”.

The Human Rights group however stated some of the cases for which the intervention of the EFCC is sought as:

4. Purchase of a bullet-proof car at a market value of less than N100 Million (One Hundred Million Naira), and the inflation of its price to N300 Million (Three Hundred Million Naira). Apart from being inflated by a whopping 200%, the purchase of the vehicle was done in a questionable manner contrary to procurement acts. This constitutes a flagrant abuse of office and the exercise of privilege with impunity in a country where majority of the citizens live on less than a dollar a day.
5. Unilateral purchase of 40 cars for members of the Assembly with neither prior discussion with members, nor official approval by the House. We have it on good authority that the vehicles were imported by a notable politician for a failed political project. The Speaker procured those vehicles, and has since refused to either release their papers to the supposed beneficiaries, or tender their receipt for retirement into the Assembly’s accounts for obvious reasons as the cost of the vehicles is only known to the Speaker.
6. Purchase of 11(eleven) other vehicles without bidding, advertisement and rules and regulations guiding procurement or legislative approval. This is disdain for public accountability and established checks and balances.
7. Use of fictitious companies as fronts for cornering public contracts and fleecing of public funds. The most notorious of these companies is a certain De-Kingrun Multipurpose Nigeria Limited with CAC No: RC 748741 where all his six children are shareholders.

A probe of the businesses of the House since his leadership should reveal how notoriously Obasa has been breaching public trust by diverting contracts and projects into companies of his interest with the active connivance of the clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni Adebowale.

5. Compromise of operational procedures, creation of an extra-legal hierarchy and privileging cronies at the expense of the system. This is by far the greatest calamity to befall the Lagos State House of Assembly under Obasa’s watch. Regulatory procedures have been in most cases set aside with the connivance of the Clerk of the House with the ill-intent of carrying out governmental business for private gains and as a private concern. With this tactics, Obasa created an extra-legal hierarchy within the workforce of the States Assembly where his cronies, (including a concubine of his popularly called Madam Speaker), reign supreme.

” It is on good authority that the girl named Nike Ajibose was promoted to level 9 without promotional exams. Because of her relationship with the Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, she recently traveled to United Kingdom with a whooping nine milllion Naira of LSHA money not approved, but more importantly we suspect he  is using the girl for money laundering activities.

The recent allegation of illegal 2.4 billion naira spent within 11months to purchase 80 cars for 40 members of LSHA must be thoroughly investigated by your establishment that remain the best anti-graft agency in Africa”.

The Group stressed that “if the Lagos Speaker is found guilty of any of the above allegations, that would amount to a breach of public trust,  such a man cannot continue to be the Speaker to the Lagos State House of Assembly.

“It is our belief that the actions and activities of Honorable Mudashiru Obasa at the Lagos State House of Assembly is detriment to the House, and demand that Obasa steps down,  pending investigations on these corrupt allegations.”