Lagos State Assembly speaker, deputy reportedly in cold war

There are allegations that all is not well with the leadership of the Lagos State Assembly, Speaker Mudashiru Obasa and Deputy Speaker, Hon. Wasiu Sanni-Eshinlokun.

The news is coming following allegations that majority of the members of the assembly refused to attend a plenary session that was supposed to be presided over by the Deputy Speaker on Monday, April 10, 2017.

Sources in the assembly alleged further that the 40 lawmakers in the assembly have taken sides thereby giving rooms for two major caucus in the house.

Pulse however gathered that the alleged tale which made rounds has further revealed the crack in the leadership of the state Assembly that has been perceived as peaceful for two years.

Another seeming faction of the Deputy Speaker had claimed that there was actually no sitting at all in the house on Monday, April 10, 2017.

The caucus further maintained that the Deputy Speaker never presided over any sitting stating that almost all the 39 members of the house were present in their offices to resume their normal legislative duties, without the knowledge of the Speaker's absence.

According to a source, who is close to one of the lawmakers and craved for anonymity, the Deputy Speaker was not aware of the Speaker's absence, until noon when news filtered in that the Speaker was not around.

The source further claimed that the Clerk of the house as well as the chairman of information committee, Tunde Braimoh didn’t pass the message across to the members who were present for the plenary session.
The source said: “Some members of the house were already in the chamber to move into plenary.

There was no prior notice that the Speaker wouldn’t be around to preside over plenary, so we were not expecting anything strange. The bell to announce the time for sitting had been sounded and even few members, including Hon. Funmi Tejuosho were already taking their seats.

"It was at this point that the Majority Leader came with the news that the Speaker was not going to be around. At that point, the Deputy Speaker was still in his office. It was the Majority leader that went to break the news to him. Later on, they got on the phone with the Speaker and he told them he was not around.

"While, all these were going on, other lawmakers who were preparing to go into plenary retired back to their offices. There are CCTV cameras all over the assembly complex, anyone that wants to fault what I have said can come out; the recordings from the cameras are there.

“The truth is, the Deputy Speaker did not have any plan to preside over plenary on that day, as there was no fresh order of proceedings (which could have been made if the Speaker had communicated his absence officially). There are many channels through which the Speaker could have communicated his absence to the members. There is a WhatsApp chat group that has all the 40 members of the house. He could have just dropped the message there and all members would have done the needful”.

The Desmond Elliot Angle

Sources in the assembly allegedly maintained that none of the members of the house were in the know of the Speaker's absence on Monday April 10, 2017.

This was further buttressed with the arrival of Hon Desmond Elliot, who returned from his trip to South Africa in time for the scheduled plenary session to be presided by the speaker.
“No one was aware that he was not going to be around, and that there was not going to be a sitting, since the whole house officially adjourned till Monday during the last sitting on April 4. For instance, Hon. Desmond Elliot, who was in South Africa for the Big Brother Naija finale the previous night, flew into Lagos in time, so that he would not miss plenary," the source had dropped.

Efforts to get the speaker and his deputy had proved abortive as the mobile numbers of their media aides were switched off before going to press.


Props: Pulse NG