Lawmakers in the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday, June 8, 2020 passed a vote of confidence on the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa on alleged corruption leveled against him.
Hon. Obasa who was alleged of corruption bothering on operating 64 bank accounts, having unilaterally approved expenditure programmes and activities in the House, spending of N258million to print invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th Assembly, receiving N80 million as estacode and his wife receiving N10 million on monthly basis from the House, purchase of 11 Hiace buses and 80 cars for the lawmakers within a year without following due procedure.
The vote of confidence which was passed during the presentation of report from a nine-man fact finding committee of the House on allegation of corruption leveled against the speaker by Sahara Reporters chaired by Hon. Victor Akande (Ojo Constituency) during plenary.
The committee reported that the allegations were fallacious and due process were taking in the purchase of the vehicles. The committee charge Clerk of the House to embark on thorough investigation into the leakage of documents and recommended that activities of the House be digitalised in other to have proper record keeping.
However, all members of the House give attestation to the recommendation based on a voice vote conducted by Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Sanni Agunbiada who was in acting capacity as the speaker.
“The Speaker does not have multiple accounts with Ecobank, the BVN ascribed to Wema Bank does not belong to him and the companies attributed to him in Wema Bank are not correct.
Out of the 14 accounts attributed to him for Zenith Bank, only six belong to him and only two are active. “The companies ascribed to him in Zenith Bank does not belong to him. The Deputy Speaker did not attend any trip in Dubai as against the reports of Sahara Reporters,” he said.
“The purchase of 36 Toyota Prado and 6 Land Cruisers were budgeted for and approved by the PPA. The allegations of spending N64 Million for social media influencers was not true.
“The USA trip was attended. Only eight Hiace Buses were purchased for committee works and staff buses. Contrary to the claim of N258 million spent for printing invitation cards for the inauguration for 9th assembly as only N61 million was spent for the event and N1.1 for invitation cards. “The facility management company in the House does not belong to the Speaker. The alleged N10 million paid to the speaker wife is not true,” he said.
Olaoluwa Oladele