Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, disassociated himself from Mudashiru Obasa’s impeachment as speaker of the state assembly on Monday.
In an interview, Gboyega Akosile, Special Adviser on Media & Publicity for Sanwo-Olu, characterized Obasa’s impeachment as a rigorous legislative process free from political influence or intervention from the state government.
The Assembly did their best to handle the situation, which is solely a legislative one. “It has nothing to do with the governor,” Akosile stated plainly, referring to the constitution’s division of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
As of this writing, the specifics of the Speaker’s dismissal are yet unknown. Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, however, were reported to have fired Obasa due to a number of charges, including money embezzlement, misbehavior, and abuse.
Olalekan Onafeko, the Clerk of the House, was also placed on indefinite leave, and Mojeed Fatai, the Chief Whip, was chosen to serve as the next Deputy Speaker.
A comment regarding the development has not been released by the House.
According to several sources, Obasa was dismissed by the parliamentarians during a Monday session after the proposal received support from 90% of the House.
The new and first female Speaker of the Assembly, Mojisola Meranda, was then sworn in as the Deputy Speaker.
“It is only death that is constant, so change is inevitable,” a politician stated in a widely shared video that our correspondent saw, surrounded by other Assembly members. Today, the parliament’s members resolved to switch the House’s leadership. The Constitution explicitly states that the House can control how it operates.
The House members believed that we had had enough of Mudashiru Obasa’s leadership. Our unanimous decision was to appoint Hon. Mojisola Meranda as the new Speaker and Hon. Fatai Adebola as the Deputy Speaker. All of the parliament’s members agreed with the resolution. All of the House’s standing committees and key positions have been dissolved as of right now.
Eromosele Ebhomele, Obasa’s chief press secretary, did not answer calls or texts on the development at the time this report was filed.
Regarding whether the state would bring charges against Obasa for the fraud, Akosile, Sanwo-Olu’s aide, stated that since the Assembly had made the accusation against the former Speaker, the parliamentarians would still be in charge of handling such matters.
Obasa recently reportedly called claims that the Assembly had constructed a gate for N17 billion “spurious and laughable.”
An probe was demanded after the Lagos State Anti-Corruption Coalition accused the Assembly of using the funds for the gate.
During the plenary, the former Speaker refuted the accusations, characterizing them as politically driven.
“It’s humorous. For anyone to say that we spent N17 billion on a gate, how much is the Assembly’s annual budget? He added, “They even claimed that we spent N200 million on the recently held 22nd Thanksgiving Service, which is false.”
It has also been suggested that Obasa’s troubles could be related to his rumored goal of becoming governor of Lagos in 2027.
When Governor Sanwo-Olu presented the 2025 budget to the Lagos Assembly in November 2024, Obasa stated that he had the experience to run for the state’s governorship in 2027, despite the fact that he had not given the position much thought “as was already being speculated.”
He declared, “To the blackmailers who have set out to reinterpret and distort our purpose, let me say this clearly: we intend to advance our party on the mandate platform.
Additionally, I haven’t given becoming governor any thought; it’s a secondary goal. But it doesn’t mean I’m too young or inexperienced to run; in contrast, people who have gone before me are in a better position.
His remarks were also made in the midst of rumors that Seyi, the son of President Bola Tinubu, was considering running for governor of the state. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state had criticized these rumors.
In the meantime, rumors of political influence over the Speaker’s dismissal were denied by the state’s APC.
On Monday, Seye Oladejo, the party’s state publicity secretary, said the issue “remains an internal affair of the legislative arm – the Lagos State House of Assembly.”
“The separation of powers is respected by our party,” Oladejo stated. We have no history of excessively meddling in matters that belong to the legislature. The party has never been known to meddle needlessly.
The APC spokesperson rejected the idea that the governor was involved in Obasa’s dismissal, stating that “all those things, including that he (Obasa) was nursing governorship ambition, those things are speculations and will remain in the realm of speculations until proven otherwise.”
People will inevitably conjecture if they are not aware of the true events that took place. Anywhere in the House’s justifications, the APC was not identified as issuing orders.
The former Speaker’s propensity to run for governor of the state, according to Tai Benedict, the deputy chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos, made Obasa’s impeachment predictable.
“We heard, and it was to be anticipated. First of all, you can’t keep lying to people; eventually, the truth will come out. As far as I can tell, Obasa is a Lagosian, and I think the entire incident started because he is interested in becoming the state’s governor.
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They know he has that ticket since he is a Lagosian. Since none of the candidates for governor since Tinubu’s time are actual Lagosians, they are confident he can win and will be a true Lagosian if he does. A lot of things will become clear once we have someone who is truly Lagosian.
“These financial allegations came up overnight,” the PDP leader said in response to the accusations made against Obasa. The Nigerian government system is what we are witnessing. If he’s in their good graces, he will be covered as usual as of right now. I don’t want to imply that this is a lie.
Labour Party state secretary Sam Okpala stated that the party was keeping a close eye on the situation because it wanted the APC to “deal” with itself.
The Speaker who was removed from office does not belong to the Labour Party. Only one of us is a member of the Lagos Assembly. Additionally, we are keeping an eye on developments in the APC and the Assembly. We want the APC to handle things on its own.
According to Muyiwa Jimoh, a three-term former state Assembly member, members have consistently tried to highlight Obasa’s flaws during his tenure.
The impeachment of Obasa was long overdue, he said.
In 2015, he was appointed Speaker, and I was the Deputy Majority Leader. I served during his term, and when he was re-elected, we noticed his flaws and other violations. However, as a trained leader, we tried to point out his mistakes and talk to him to make sure they were fixed moving ahead to advance the Assembly and the state.
