Coalition of CSOs threatens to shut down Lagos Assembly over impeachment threat to Ambode

Patrick Okohue

The crisis rocking the Lagos State government leading to the House of Assembly setting in motion machinery to possibly impeach the governor, Akinwunmi Ambode may have taken a new turn, as a coalition of civil society groups under the auspices of Lagos Liberation Movement (LLM) on Thursday threatened to occupy and shut down the Lagos State House of Assembly should the lawmakers proceed with the impeachment moves against Ambode, describing the action as anti-people and treasonable. The lawmakers had threatened to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor over alleged gross misconduct particularly with regards to the 2019 budget of the state. But addressing a world press conference at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja, the groups which include Campaign for Democracy (CD), United Action For Democracy (UAD), Centre for Public Accountability (CPA), Democracy Volunteers (DV), Ajegunle Collectives, Lagos People’s Assembly (LPA), Oodua Peoples Congress (Reformed), Yoruba Revolutionary Assembly (YORA) and Ohanaeze Youths, Lagos, said with the development, it was obvious that the Lagos Assembly was becoming a political abattoir for the murder of democracy in Nigeria. LLM Convener, Comrade Mark Adebayo specifically accused a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as being the architect of the impeachment saga and urged all Lagosians and genuine compatriots across the country to strongly resist the move by the Lagos lawmakers against the governor. He said it was obvious that the whole saga was a direct assault by a few political marauders determined to supplant democracy and jeopardise peace and development in the state, and further perpetuate their political dynasty. According to Adebayo, “It is public knowledge that some days ago, members of the House commenced what is tantamount to a game of shame and senselessness, the results of which are predictably destructive by the ill-advised commencement of impeachment process against Governor Ambode.  “The question that most Lagosians are asking is ‘why?’ However, the reasons are not farfetched: It is fundamentally the handiwork and retrogressive machinations of political forces of evil determined to keep Lagos State in perpetual bondage of a man playing God over more than 20 million Lagosians with a view to perpetuating a political dynasty of lootocratic recklessness, marauding corruption and a relay regime of nepotistic subjugation accentuated by an intractable malaise of primitive accumulation of the most deadly genre, spearheaded, commanded, guided and goaded by Asiwaju Tinubu we daresay.” He said the coalition and indeed vast majority of Lagosians were convinced beyond reasonable doubts that the allegations against the governor by the lawmakers were unknown to the constitution, but a move basically propelled desperately by few persons to have unrestricted access to the state’s treasury to squander on their political protégés running for public offices in the forthcoming general elections. While alleging that the current backlash against the governor was over his refusal to comply with directive by his political godfather to release several billions of naira for elections, Adebayo warned Ambode never to contemplate leaving the state littered with uncompleted projects, saying he still had enough time to complete most of them before the expiration of his tenure on May 29, 2019.