- as probe panel submits report
Lawmakers at the Lagos state House of Assembly at plenary on Monday passed a vote of confidence on Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.
This followed the presentation of the report of a 9-man fact-finding adhoc committee of the House on allegations of corruption levelled against the speaker by SaharaReporters.
The committee, headed by Hon. Victor Akande (Ojo constituency 1)
was mandated to investigate the allegations of corruption leveled against the Speaker which includes operating 64 bank accounts with different banks with different names.
It was also alleged that the Speaker unilaterally approved expenditure for programmes and activities in the House, and spent N258 million to print invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th assembly.
The speaker allegedly received N80 million as estacode and that his wife was collecting N10 million from the House on monthly basis.
There were also reports that the House purchased 11 Hiace buses as well as 80 cars for the lawmakers within a year without following due process.
The committee, in its report stated that all the allegations were frivolous and that the speaker followed due process in all purchases.
According to the committee, the allegations against Obasa were frivolous and unfounded.
The committee recommended that the Clerk of the House should begin the process of investigating the leakage of some documents of the House to the press and bring the erring staffers to book.
it was also recommended that the activities of the House should be digitalised for proper record keeping and monitoring.
It was then suggested that vote of confidence should be passed in the speaker.
Hon. Setonji David (Badagry 2) later moved a motion for the adoption of the recommendation of the committee and this was supported by Hon. Temitope Adewale (ifako Ijaiye 2).
The whole members adopted the recommendations based on a voice vote conducted by the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Sanni Agunbiade, who acted as the Speaker during the sitting.
The Nation
