Lagos Assembly bars removed principal officers, suspended members from House, offices sealed

The turmoil and uncertainty that engulfed the Lagos Assembly over Monday’s removal of two Principal officers of the House, Hon. Olumuyiwa Jimoh Deputy Majority Leader and Rotimi Abiru, Chief Whip and suspension of two others, Hon. Moshood Oshun from Mainland Constituency 2, and his colleague, Kazeem Raheem Adewale from Ibeju Lekki Constituency 2, may not be ending soon, as the two principal officers have been replaced and offices of the four embattled lawmakers sealed up.

It will be recalled that State Assembly moved against the four lawmakers and later named two other lawmakers as replacement for the principal officers impeached earlier in the day.

The members, after plenary unanimously elected Hon. Noheem Adams from Eti-Osa constituency 1 as the Deputy Majority Leader, while Mojisola Miranda representing Apapa constituency 1 was elected as the new Chief Whip.

Before their election, Hon. Noheem was the chairman of the committee on Public Private Partnerships while Hon. Miranda was in charge of the committee on Job Creation.

Reading out the suspension, the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, relied on the provisions of the House’ Rules and Standing Order.

He had noted that the legislature is the hope of the people of the state, but because of the conducts of the affected lawmakers, the hope seemed to be missing.

“It is of this notes that I invoke Orders 68, 71, (4)(a)(b)(11) and (111) of the Rules and Standing Order of the House in respect of gross misconduct and insubordination, actions that can destabilise the House,” he said.

However in what seem to be a turn of event the two principal officers whose suspension were not announced and the two suspended on Monday were denied entry into the Lagos Assembly complex on Tuesday.

Their staff were also denied entry into the Assembly premises while their offices have been sealed up with a notice ‘Sealed’, boldly placed on the door to their offices.

Security was also unusually tight at the two entrances into the Assembly, as every vehicle and persons coming were searched before entry and those who had no genuine reasons for coming were turned back at the gates.

There are however divergent views on what may have made the House take the decision, as sources within the Assembly gave three different reasons for the unexpected happenings at plenary on Monday.

While one source had it that the lawmakers were being suspected of having recently released documents to a national daily with which it did a story on car purchases in the Assembly, which was considered embarrassing to the leadership, another alleged the lawmakers were the arrowheads of a plan to impeach the speaker.

Another source hinted the lawmakers were being loyal to the former power broker in the House, who is now a Senator, Sikiru Osinowo, alias Pepper instead of loyalty to the Speaker.

One of the lawmakers affected said: “We don’t really know what our offense is, I think it is just power show.”

However, one of the two lawmakers suspended by voice vote of members present at the plenary on Monday, Hon. Lanre Oshun, has threatened to take the matter that happened in the chamber of the Assembly to the Apex party chieftain Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for adjudication as he believes he has been fairly treated and hope he would get reprieve.

Oshun was said to have gone to Burdillon after a war of words erupted after he was barred from entering the premises of the Assembly on Monday evening. Oshun was among the two officers suspended by his colleagues.

At about 8:21pm on Monday, Hon. Lanre Oshun was sighted having altercations with security operatives at the gate of the Assembly, querying why he should be barred from entering the premises but after some minutes without access into the complex he left.

When Oshun was contacted via phone he said he was on his way to Burdillon to seek redress.

The Deputy Majority leader, Hon Muyiwa Jimoh few minutes after Oshun was turned back, also showed up at the gate and was also bounced.

However the Chief Whip was spotted within the complex observing the development.

Information has it that he managed to enter the house in the Deputy Speaker’s vehicle.