Lagos Assembly Members Reject Obasa, Reaffirm Meranda As Speaker

Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have rejected claims by the ousted Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, that he was back in office and remained the Speaker.

LEADERSHIP reports that Obasa, escorted by a large contigent of security operatives, stormed the House of Assembly on Thursday, declaring that he was back in office.

The development comes on the heels of the withdrawal of security aides attached to the current speaker, Mojisola Meranda.

Speaking with journalists at the Assembly complex, 36 out of the 40 members of the House, reaffirmed their support for Meranda’s leadership.

Stephen Ogundipe, member representing Oshodi-Isolo constituency 1, who spoke on behalf of the lawmakers, called on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State to intervene in the leadership crisis.

“We were approached by our leaders that we should remain calm and take things easy. But we are surprised to see what is happening here today,” he said.

“We won’t take laws into our hands, just as we told the staff not to take laws into their hands. But we all belong to different constituencies and we have our mandate. Whatever has to happen, the leadership should speak with us and not this charade we are seeing.

“We are not happy; we have been law-abiding. We have not gone out of our way against the state.

“We also want to be respected, to be given our dignity. To be shown that we are elected. I’m appealing to the leadership of our party that we cannot continue this way,” he added.

Meanwhile, two lawmakers, Ayinde Akinsanya (Mushin Constituency I) and Noheem Adams (Mushin Constituency II), were spotted accompanying Obasa into the Assembly complex earlier in the day.

It was gathered that Obasa’s loyalists had forced open the Speaker’s office, while thugs reportedly occupied strategic areas of the Assembly complex.

Armed miscreants were also seen making threats, vowing to seize all offices in the Assembly.

Access roads to the Assembly complex were blocked by suspected Obasa supporters, who arrived in unmarked Kombi buses, forcing motorists to take alternative routes.