{"id":2350,"date":"2025-02-28T08:10:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T08:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/?p=2350"},"modified":"2025-02-28T08:10:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T08:10:49","slug":"crisis-ridden-lagos-assembly-deepens-as-embattled-obasa-forcefully-takeover-speakers-office-presides-over-4-member-plenary-were-standing-with-meranda-36-lawmakers-insist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/2025\/02\/28\/crisis-ridden-lagos-assembly-deepens-as-embattled-obasa-forcefully-takeover-speakers-office-presides-over-4-member-plenary-were-standing-with-meranda-36-lawmakers-insist\/","title":{"rendered":"Crisis ridden Lagos Assembly deepens as embattled Obasa forcefully takeover speaker’s office … presides over 4-member plenary ..we”re standing with Meranda, 36 lawmakers insist\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Our Reporter<\/div>\n
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The crisis bedeviling\u00a0 Lagos State House of Assembly for sometime now\u00a0 took a frightening dimension\u00a0 on Thursday morning, following the withdrawal of all the police escorts of the Speaker, Rt Hon. Mojisola Meranda.<\/div>\n
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Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The withdrawal of the security details has escalated across the state, with several groups condemning the action of the police authorities.<\/div>\n
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As at the time of filing this report some groups were expressing fears of the safety of the Speaker, stating that the withdrawal of her security details has exposed her to danger.<\/div>\n
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Daily Echoes Media gathered from a\u00a0 report made available to the media which says, “All Police escort guarding Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mojisola Meranda and those safe guarding the Lagos House of Assembly has been withdrawn with immediate effect leaving the house and the speaker vuberable to attack!!!”<\/div>\n
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Shortly after, the ousted Speaker of the House, Hon Mudashiru Obasa resumed into the House and gained access to the Speaker’s office.<\/div>\n
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Obasa made a dramatic return after arriving at the Assembly Complex with security operatives.<\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve resumed, and I remain the Speaker of the Assembly,\u201d Obasa told reporters on the premises of the House.<\/div>\n
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Asked whether he has been reinstated as speaker, Obasa said, \u201cI\u2019ve never been removed. Impeachment or removal is democratic and constitutional but in doing that, you must follow the due process. I am not against that. If I do that, then I am not democratic.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The embattled former Speaker presided over plenary with four other members at the chamber.<\/div>\n
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As at the time of filing the report, the outcome of the plenary session was not made public.<\/div>\n
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Meanwhile, we gathered that since the removal of Obasa on January 13, the House has been engulfed in a series of crisis.<\/div>\n
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The situation has so far been escalated with Department of State Services also got involved.<\/div>\n
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Though, DSS has given an explanation that the acting Clerk of the House, Babatunde Ottun invited them to provide security, the House condemned the action of the operatives.<\/div>\n
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The House had argued that the operatives were not invited to lock up the Speaker and other principal officers’ offices.<\/div>\n
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In the meantime, Thirty-six of the membership of Lagos House of Assembly have resolved to stand firmly behind Meranda.<\/div>\n
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The decision of the 36 members, who gathered at the Assembly garden on Thursday afternoon, followed the ousted Obasa’s forceful takeover of the office 9of the speaker, aided by retinue of thugs and armed men.<\/div>\n
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The lawmakers, who had earlier on February 17, passed a vote of confidence on Meranda, dared all consequences to stand by their earlier decision.<\/div>\n
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A lawmaker who pleaded anonymity, said he and his other colleagues are resolved to ensure that their decision to remove Obasa stands.<\/div>\n
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“He was not elected speaker from his constituency. We all endured his master-slave relationship for close to 10 years. Now, we have said enough is enough and we are not looking back,” the lawmaker said.<\/div>\n
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However, four out of 39 other lawmakers, Hon Ayinde Akinsanya, popularly called, Osmak, representing Mushin Constituency 1, Hon. Olumoh Sa\u2019ad Lukman representing Ajeromi-Ifelodun Constituency 1, Hon.\u00a0 Abdulkareem Jubreel Ayodeji representing Agege Constituency II and Noheem Adams, representing Eti-Osa Constituency II, have been spotted accompanying Obasa to the complex.<\/div>\n
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As at the time of filing this report, the doors to the office of the Speaker had been forced open by Obasa loyalists, with huge-chestesd thugs scattered over strategic places in the complex.<\/div>\n
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Also, some armed miscreants, who accompanied Obasa to the complex were seen making threatening remarks, and vowing to take possession of all the offices in the complex.<\/div>\n
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The access roads to the complex have been taken over by people suspected to be Obasa’s thugs who arrived the scene in unmarked Kombi buses .<\/div>\n
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Motorists were forced to drive through alternative routes as all entrances have been blocked to traffic.<\/div>\n
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Daily Echoes Media noted that several women groups have also described the withdrawal as an attack on all women in Nigeria, claiming that Princess Meranda is being victimised because of her gender.<\/div>\n
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“What exactly do they want. This woman did not impose herself on the House. Her choice as Speaker was a unanimous decision of the House. By removing her security details, they have simply exposed her to unnecessary danger. This is not good for our country. It is not good for our democracy. All these dangerous politics must stop.<\/div>\n
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“I tell you, all these are happening to the Speaker because she is a woman. We know all those behind the crisis, and it is high time they realised that they cannot continue to push women down in the politics of Nigeria. We are still deliberating on what to do, and by the time we are ready, they will realise that women too have powers to defend a fellow woman,”\u00a0 a leader of the women groups stated.<\/div>\n
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Another woman leader in the state, who pleaded anonymity, called for action from the women groups in the country. “The time has come for all women in the country to join hands and defend a fellow woman. Speaker Meranda has displayed a true quality of a well-brought-up princess, but the men are not seeing this. All they want is to relegate us to the background in the scheme of things. All her colleagues came together to pick her, but they are okay with. The question that should be asked now is if they act same way if Meranda were their daughter,”<\/div>\n
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Aside the women, many Nigerians have spoken against the attempts by the powers to arm-twist the assembly members.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Our Reporter The crisis bedeviling\u00a0 Lagos State House of Assembly for sometime now\u00a0 took a frightening dimension\u00a0 on Thursday morning, following the withdrawal of all the police escorts of the Speaker, Rt Hon. Mojisola Meranda. The withdrawal of the security details has escalated across the state, with several groups condemning the action of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1468,1059,720,1470,1467,26,1469],"class_list":["post-2350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bedeviling","tag-crisis","tag-impeachment","tag-presiding","tag-ridden","tag-security","tag-takeover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2353,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions\/2353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}