If any soothsayer had predicted at the beginning of 2025 that Dr. Mudashiru Obasa, one of the most experienced lawmakers in the Lagos State House of Assembly, would be removed, even his enemy would not believe.
He was removed from office 13 days into the New Year and just seven days after he presided over plenary to pass the 2025 appropriation bill of the state. Obasa, who was in Atlanta when the impeachment happened, has refused to defend any of the allegations against him.
However, his colleagues made allegations of high-handedness, financial impropriety and a series of other allegations.
Huhuonline.com can authoritatively report that the plot to impeach Obasa began even before the November 2024 budget presentation by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
“The impeachment was already being moved. There was hidden tension even before the budget presentation,” a lawmaker told this medium. “We were already frustrated and weakened. We were all living like paupers at the expense of one man even when we were all elected.
“He adopted a system of fear and intimidation making it difficult for us to relate with one another. There was serious mutual suspicion among us all.”
Below are some of his alleged infractions:
1. Denigrating Sanwo-Olu: The budget presentation was the fourth time Obasa would humiliate Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in public, the first being during the screening of commissioner-nominees.
While reacting to the criticisms that followed the disqualification of some of the nominees, Obasa recalled how he had been in the system before the governor. He also warned that “the man living in the glass house should not throw stones.”
Sources revealed how he further humiliated the governor during a stakeholders meeting organised by the lawmakers across the 40 constituencies of the state. At the meeting with his constituents, Obasa said he had not considered the governorship ambition but that none of those who had been governor of the state was more qualified than him. He made the same comment when youths in Agege organised a solidarity rally for him days after the stakeholders meeting. The fourth time was during the budget presentation.
2. Fighting APC Chairman: Within last year, crisis erupted between his group and that of Ayinde Enilolobo in the Alimosho area of the state and it got the attention of the party secretariat. The party chairman intervened, but he was accused of supporting the other group. His group protested to the secretariat where issues soon degenerated to violence. Party sources described how the Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, was beaten up. Though he denied, the party never forgave him.
3. Suspension Of Local Government Chairman: The suspension of the chairman of the Alimosho Local Government Area, Jelili Suleiman, has been described as one of the former Speaker’s undoing. Suleiman was suspended because of a market in his domain which the former Speaker wanted for his alleged ally. After his suspension by the House, the Governor refused to approve it. Suleiman also went to court and started dragging Obasa on social media until the Governance Advisory Council (GAC) waded in and asked the former Speaker to withdraw the suspension while the chairman should also withdraw the case.
4. Local Government Administration Bill: One issue held against the removed Speaker was his alleged plot to whittle the powers of the Governor in the Local Government Administration Bill that was recently passed by the House. In the bill, it was learnt that the House only made provisions for the recognition of 20 local government areas for the election. The Local Council Development Areas created by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu during his time as governor, were not recognise, meaning that the latter should have appointed heads instead of elected chairmen.
Party chiefs frowned that he did not consult with them before taking the decision while others claimed he planned to plant his cronies in the 37 LCDAs ahead of 2027. The APC, after a meeting with President Tinubu in December, announced that elections would hold in the LCDAs.
5. LASIEC Law And Appointments: Governor Sanwo-Olu, in June last year, sent a list of nominees for the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC). The nominees were only screened and approved by the Assembly six months later on December 31, 2024 after the House faced pressures from members of the public, civil rights activists and party members who accused the Speaker of trying remove the power of appointment into LASIEC from the Governor.
6. Disregard for lawmakers: It had become public knowledge that out of fear of intimidation and oppression, the lawmakers daily felt muzzled and incapacitated. “Lawmakers were hardly allowed to sit when addressing him. He had no regards for us. Imagine that I hated going to his office because he could keep me waiting for up to two hours. I mean his colleague and this was not limited to me. A lot of people had the same complaints.
7. Inciting Staff Against One Another: The day he was impeached was a beautiful day for staff of the House. There was jubilation in all the offices. Some of the staff said they had been victims of his alleged high-handedness leading to their juniors given positions above them. “If he does not like your face, you are either thrown to LAHASCOM or made subservient to your junior who could be given positions above you,” a Deputy Director told this Huhuonline.com.
The embattled former Speaker’s colleagues also levelled allegations financial recklessness against Obasa for which he is seeking the face of President Tinubu for a soft landing.
