It was a wet Monday morning raining cat and dog, when our reporter embarked on a journey to Agege, Lagos area the constituency of the Lagos state speaker Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa who have been accused of corruption by some online media outfit Sahara reporters.
Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been need for the agege trip to agege but Ekocity magazine as a responsible media outfit, we thought we thought it expedient to meet the people Mr. Obasa represents.
The office of the speaker is a very powerful position with a whole lot of responsibilities, even in hierarchy the speaker is the no 3 person after the governor and his deputy. In case of any unfortunate incident, that may take away the governor and his deputy either by impeachment or death, the speaker takes over as governor.
However, such case rarely happens except for that of the former speaker of adamawa alhaji adamu fintiri who took over from former Murtala Nyako. Coincidentally, the then speaker is now the governor and as they say the rest is history.
The first point of call was pen cinema where the reporter me Sikirat a trader, we asked her if she knew who the speaker was,
‘’ Haa eyan niyen in Yoruba meaning, ‘’ that’s a respectable person who has done a lot for the agege community and its environs and he will be difficult to replace’’
Sikirat is one of the many indigenes and residents of agege who have benefited from the good works of the Lagos speaker.
When our reporter visited Ayobo another part of the constituency of the speaker, our reporter met Adigun a meat seller he said, ‘’ the speaker is a good person and he has helped us in so many ways in our area. All we can do is to pray for him for wisdom, good health and long life’’.
We have never had it this good in this area, Adigun continued. When asked about the allegations levelled against the speaker, he said, ‘’I don’t believe any of these allegations, it is politically motivated why is that it is now that he is doing well that all these allegations are coming out, our speaker is doing well.
Looking at the allegations levelled against the speaker on a case by case basis.
17 MILLION NAIRA ALLEGATION.
On the 26th of April, 2020 Sahara reporters alleged that the speaker through a proxy company, made the state Assembly approve N17m for the maintenance of his personal resident, guesthouse and office. In the document made available by Sahara reporters which Ekocitytv also has a copy of to get the house to approve maintenance of his companies to get the cleaning.
During Ekocity magazine’s findings, we discovered that this particular expenditure has been in existence before the emergence of Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa and it was even 27m but was the current speaker that reviewed it downwards. In fact, this maintenance of speaker’s office started in 2012 according to the documents sighted by our team.
In the document displayed by sahara reporters, the media outfit, only presented payment of February 2018 alone. Also according to sahara reporters, it claimed that the company that executes the maintenance, Extremely Logistics and Cleaning Services ltd was registered in 2015 which could be a coincident. What the media outfit didn’t reveal to its readers are the name of directors of the company and the promoters of the company and which companies was been awarded the contract before now and moreover, if the company was registered in 2015 to serve the speaker’s purpose, why was it 2018it was engaged.
Ekocity magazine findings showed that all necessary approvals for the were gotten before the contract was awarded an according to the speaker, he said, ‘’this house is not reckless and not known for frivolous expenditure’’. Findings by our team also corroborated the claims of the clerk that the 17m is not only for the maintenance of the speaker’s office as being erroneously claimed by Sahara reporters.
The 17m covers the following expenditure:
- Office of the chief of staff
- Office of the special adviser on budget
- Special adviser on political matters
- Office of the chief press secretary
- Office of the special assistance protocol
- Office of the special assistance research
- Office of the special adviser women affairs and development
The expenditure also covers for 15 other special advisers engaged to attend to the growing demand and specialization of the house.
Lastly on this 17m allegation, the expenditure has been in existence before the emergence of Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa. Infact it is dated back to year 2012 to be precise according to the clerk of the house.
In an interview with the PUNCH newspapers, one of the lawmakers representing surulere, hon desmond Elliot he said
‘’ it was clearly explained that during the era if his predecessor, it was 27m and it was when he came into the office around 2016 or 2017 that he slashed it 17m. when they say office of the speaker, it involves the office of the chief of staff, several special advisers and personal staff. The legislative arm has all these offices just like you have in judiciary and executive arms. So all the apparatus that would make the office of the speaker work must be taken into cognizance’’
The 45M Christmas Party Allegation
in the report presented by Sahara reporters, the media outfit claimed that the speaker collected 45m approved for 2019 Christmas party that never held ‘’In yet another grand corruption, Sahara Reporters has uncovered how Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, illegally collected N45,750,00 for a Christmas party that never held’’
but contrary to the story by Sahara reporters, the party held and even had in attendance the wife of the state governor Mrs. ibijoke sanwolu, the leading pastor of Christ Living Apostolic Ministry (CLAM) pastor wole oladiyun, also in attendance were top APC stalwarts, imam and other special dignitaries.
In our findings, Ekocity magazine watched the footage of the Christmas party and also saw the documents to show that monies were disbursed as approved.
Another allegation by the online media out claimed that the speaker allocated 10m to his wife monthly and also mobilized thugs to burn down the civic media lab office.
On these allegations, our reporter met with one of the lawmakers who doesn’t want his name on print said. ‘’You see all these allegations are the handy work of some people who just want to tarnish the image of the speaker’’ he continued,
‘’when a man is soaring high, there will be distractors and enemies to pull him down that’s the case of the speaker’’.
The 53 million travel allowance allegation
In another wave of allegations, the online media claimed the speaker got approval for the release of 53m to travel to a conference in the united states which did not eventually hold.
In the publication, the speaker travelled with an unnamed mistress with no picture with the said said funds and the speaker did not return the money back to the coffers of the state.
However, in the findings of Ekocity magazine, it was revealed that the speaker did travel with some other 4 others with two of the staff of the speaker. According to a lawmaker, who doesn’t want his name on print, he said ‘’ the lawmakers that went are still alive and some of which are
1)hon Jimi Mohammed
2) hon saka nurudeen solaja,
3) hon tuned braimoh
4)folashade latona
Nike ajibosin who is in charge of protocol
Even Sahara reporters in their also mention hon Mohammed’s name but said they don’t know if his bill was part of the released funds.
Again the findings of Ekocity magazine contradicts the reports of Sahara reporters that only the speaker and his mistress went to united states.
According to the CPS to the speaker, tolani abati the speaker and his other colleagues got to know of the shift in date when they got to the venue because it clashed with another event.
One would have thought that Sahara reporters will ask for proof of travel from the above listed travelers.
280 Million for printing of invitation cards
Another allegation we also investigated was the release of a mind boggling 280m for printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th assembly.
On seeing this figures, one will need to crucify the speaker without digging deep but when our team dug further, we found out something different.
On the document our team sighted, we found out the online media out surreptiously covered the amount earmarked for the printing of the cards and showed its readers a bogus 258m which was entirely for another thing
What was approved for the printing of the said programme was 1,1130,000 even the national assembly, both Senate and house of reps spent 61.3m for same event.
The latest of the allegations is the 64 accounts linked to the accounts of the Lagos speaker.
In the latest report of Sahara reporters, it claimed to have found 64 accounts linked to BVN of the speaker. Naturally that allegation looks bogus, but upon internal inquiry, we asked some questions.
- Is it possible to link two different accounts with different names to one BVN?
- Is it possible to have two different bank accounts with one BVN?
- If it is true, did the banks compromise or was it a genuine mistake from the banks.?
- On a second look, did the 9 banks listed by the online media outfit all compromise with the speaker to perpetuate the fraud?
All these questions are begging for answers; our team went further to interview a staff of one of the new generation banks.
‘’ he said how possible is that and how will all the banks want to spoil their reputation to protect an individual’’
In a bid to further unravel the mystery, Ekocity magazine called a couple of lawmakers most of who decided to stay off camera. Coincidentally, all of them said the allegations are too bogus to be true and that there is no expenditure that does not go through budgetary allocation and that all necessary approval were gotten before and expenditure is made.
ANTECEDENTS OF SAHARA REPORTERS
Naturally, allegations of this magnitude needs to be thoroughly investigated and the truth unraveled but the image of the online media house calls for questioning, Sahara reporters have been notoriously made available for a tool for political vendetta. An example was Sahara came out so many bogus and unsubstantiated claims against senator dino melaye and erstwhile senate president and former governor of kwara bukola saraki. The media outfit in this obasa’s case, has assumed 4 positions in one. The position of the journalist, critiques, EFCC and ICPC and lastly the judge.
Summation
In our summation, the house should make its books available for scrutiny to dispels these rumours, the relevant authorities , should futher investigate and lastly, if the hon members feel they are still in support of their speaker, they should come out once again with a vote of confidence in support of the speaker.
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