You would recall that the Lagos State House of Assembly experienced a breath of fresh air on 13th January, 2025 when 35 members of the 10th Assembly united in one voice to remove Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker while electing his deputy, RT. Hon. Princess Mojisola Lasbat Meranda as the First Female Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Since this development, which was widely welcome by all parties and groups there has been controversy as Obasa refused to accept this lying down. In a twist of events, he sued the House of Assembly and RT. HON. Meranda in a 1 Billion naira lawsuit challenging his removal.
On Friday, the court case took a left turn as Obasa’s representing counsel filed a new motion alleging fraud by RT. HON. Meranda. This being a surprising accusation, the court adjourned till Monday, March 17th, 2025 granting all parties ample time to file motions and respond to filed motions.
At this point, it is important to point out that this alleged fraud is regarding the purchase of SUVs for honourable members as is the normal practice of the institution to aid easy work flow, monitoring and legislation. Therefore, this action had been in motion since 13th May, 2024 where it had been raised, and procurement processes had been set in motion while the house of assembly was still under the leadership of Mudashiru Obasa. As seen in a leaked document signed by the now suspended clerk of the House Olalekan Onafeko on 23rd December, 2024, 35 units of Toyota Fortuna and 10 Units of Prado SUVs were to be procured from Dubai for the house and about 7 Billion Naira was approved to be allocated for this purpose. This order being approved had not been executed at the point of his removal in January.
On RT. HON. Meranda’s resumption to office, she merely revised the already existing approval by locally sourcing for better versions of the initial brands for lower prices. Her order comprised of 32 units of 2025 Prado and 7 Units of 2025 Landcruiser SUVs for 5 Billion Naira, this being a total of 29 SUVs, being that she did not make a purchase for herself or recoup funds for that purpose and saving the House of Assembly almost 2 Billion Naira from the initially allocated fund.
This is totally foiled the already planned and approved fraudulent purchase of the removed speaker and brought speed to a process that had been on for over 7months within 49days. This begs the question, who should really be filing a motion for Fraud
