President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, resolved the leadership crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly. The President met with members of the House, including Speaker Mudashiru Obasa and Deputy Speaker Mojisola Meranda, in the State House.
The meeting followed weeks of political turmoil in the Assembly. In January, 36 lawmakers voted to remove Obasa as Speaker over allegations of abuse of office and financial mismanagement.
While most of the legislators arrived at the presidential villa together in a coaster bus around 2 pm, Obasa arrived separately about 30 minutes later.
At the end of the closed-door meeting, Obasa declined to speak with State House correspondents, but the lawmakers were heard singing in unison, “On your mandate, we shall stand,” a popular political slogan affirming their loyalty to the President.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that some lawmakers apologized to Obasa over his recent removal.
However, a member of the House of Representatives, James Faleke, who was in the meeting, when asked about the outcome of the meeting, responded, “It went well”.
Sources privy to the meeting said Tinubu has asked the lawmakers to respect the supremacy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State and accept the return of Obasa as the Speaker of the House.
It was also learnt that the President urged the lawmakers to go and work in unity in the interest of the party and instructed Obasa to change his attitude positively, show remorse and respect his colleagues.
Before the President’s intervention, Obasa had accused his deputy, Meranda, of purchasing N5 billion vehicles for 40 lawmakers.
The crisis between Obasa and his deputy stemmed from her decision to approve the disbursement of N5 billion to purchase 40 units of 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs, one for each of the lawmakers few days after she was sworn in as the first female speaker on January 13.
Sources said: “Another serious crisis is brewing in the Lagos Assembly. This is because Obasa is angry that Mojisola Meranda didn’t even wait for weeks to pass before she withdrew N5 billion from the assembly’s account to buy 40 2025 Toyota Land Cruisers for lawmakers after she replaced him as speaker. Obasa is not taking the decision lightly, and he is asking her to return the money now.”
Obasa, who already had a plan on purchasing the vehicles before his removal, was re-elected as speaker on March 3 on Tinubu’s order and immediately began to pressurise Meranda to return the N5 billion she disbursed to purchase the vehicles, saying she has no right to withdraw money from the assembly’s account.
Meranda’s tenure lasted just 49 days before she was forced to resign after the President mounted pressure on lawmakers and All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership in the state to ensure Obasa’s reinstatement as Speaker.
Before his removal, Obasa had already finalised plans to disburse N7 billion to dealers to supply 45 units of Toyota Fortuner SUVs, with his initial plan being to give one each to the 40 Lagos House of Assembly members, one for the House clerk, one each for his two wives and the rest for himself.
Meanwhile, the National Industrial Court has berated the suspended Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, for resorting to self-help. The court said it never ordered his reinstatement, as reported by a section of the media.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the court said it only asked that parties maintain peace and that none of the parties should ‘do anything that will be detrimental to the peace of the state’ pending the hearing of the motion on notice.
Before adjourning the matter till March 18, 2025, for hearing all applications before it, the court expressed surprise that its declaration was misinterpreted by the claimant.
The court specifically stated that both parties shall maintain the peace and status quo ante bellum pending the hearing of the motion on notice.
