Bloodbath in Osun and the Lagos political tremor

February 17, 2025, will go down in the annals of Lagos and Osun states as epochal and Black Monday. There was a political tremor in the Lagos State House of Assembly as operatives of the Directorate of State Security reportedly invaded the Assembly Complex locking out staff and sealing up the offices of the speaker, deputy speaker and acting clerk;  in the State of Osun, there was a free-for-all in many premises of the 30 local government areas of the state over the attempt by the sacked LGA chairmen and councillors elected under the All Progressives Congress to resume back to office citing a purported Appeal Court judgement. In the ensuing fracas in Osun, at least six people were murdered and scores of others wounded with property worth millions of naira destroyed.

Starting with the Osun bloodshed, the remote cause of the political crisis was the October 15, 2022, local government election conducted by the then-outgoing governor of the state, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola said to be the nephew of President Bola Tinubu. Recall that he had lost the July 16, 2022 reelection bid to the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke. The 2022 LG election conducted by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission was said not to comply with the provision of the state electoral law. It was, therefore, challenged in court by some opposition political parties among whom was the PDP in Osun. It was reported that two High Courts had sacked the LGA chairmen and councillors. Governor Adeleke, thereafter, appointed caretaker committees to manage the affairs of the councils pending when another election takes place.

Osun State Independent Electoral Commission has fixed this weekend, Saturday, February 22, 2025, as the date for the new local government election. News reports said APC members bought forms, conducted primaries and are preparing for this Saturday’s election. Suddenly, there is said to be a purported Court of Appeal judgement in Akure reinstating the sacked APC chairmen and councillors. This has been debunked by the governor and the PDP. In fact, last Sunday, February 16, 2025, Governor Ademola Adeleke addressed a press conference where he asked President Tinubu to call his nephew, and incumbent Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Oyetola, to order.

At a press briefing on Sunday, Adeleke alleged, “The bone of contention is the brazen effrontery to return to office council chairmen sacked by a subsisting court judgment using a different court decision, which has no consequential order.” He stated further, “Let me make it clear that the said council Chairmen were sacked before I was sworn in as governor of Osun State, contrary to the lies being peddled that the chairmen and councillors were sacked by my Executive Order. For emphasis, l want to state that I had nothing to do with the sacking of the chairmen and councillors produced by the Osun 2022 local government polls. The chairmen and councillors were sacked by two different judgments of the Federal High Court Osogbo. I call on Mr President to instruct the National Security Adviser and the Attorney General of the Federation to personally verify the fact that the Court of Appeal judgement did not reinstate the sacked local government chairmen and councillors,” he said.

So that was the background to the Osun State political crisis that was witnessed last Monday. A newspaper on Monday reported, “No fewer than six persons reportedly lost their lives on Monday as the dispute over the status of former local government chairmen of Osun State turned bloody. At least, two persons were feared killed in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Areas of Osun State, while several others were wounded in other LGs in the state following the resumption of officials elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in the October 15, 2022 LG elections in the state at the council secretariats. Also, in Ikire, Irewole LGA, the APC council chairman, Remi Abass, was shot dead by suspected political thugs. In Ilesa, a former Commissioner for Works under Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Engineer Remi Omowaye, narrowly escaped being killed as his vehicle was riddled with bullets while his office was set ablaze.”

Will this Saturday’s election go on as scheduled? Doubtful. Why are the political gladiators in Osun fighting over the control of the local government areas? It is simply because of the 2026 governorship election in Osun State and the 2027 general elections. Both APC and PDP want to plant their loyalists into the councils ahead of these two elections. They will be the foot soldiers for the parties during the forthcoming elections. It is already an open secret that former Governor Oyetola with the backing of his uncle, the incumbent President will likely have a rematch of 2022 next year with the incumbent governor of the state. Both of them will be seeking reelection for their second and final term in office. This will be their third term of locking horns in an electoral contest. The first was in 2018 when Oyetola won through a controversial supplementary election. The second time was in July 2022 when Adeleke won. So, it is a matter of ego, grit and political sagacity. Governor  Adeleke is from an illustrious Adeleke dynasty in Ede while Oyetola, who was a former Chief of Staff to Rauf Aregbesola as a governor, will be counting on the backing of President Tinubu who is rumoured to have family ties in Iragbiji, Osun State.

As for the Lagos House of Assembly political brouhaha, it has a long history as the former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has several times been alleged to have abused his office and engaged in gross misconduct. Political gladiators in Lagos said that he had fallen out of favour with the powerful non-state actor group called the Governance Advisory Council. He was reported to have been rude to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and disrespected the GAC, especially during the presentation of the 2025 budget presentation exercise on Thursday, November 21, 2024. Obasa was said to have kept the governor waiting for four hours and the GAC members for five hours without apology. He purportedly made a snide remark at the governor during the budget presentation exercise. Grapevine sources claimed that several reconciliatory meetings had been held in the past and that President Tinubu even facilitated another one during his Christmas/New Year vacation in Lagos last December. Not a few also believed that he was nursing political ambition to be governor in 2027.

Obasa is not a featherweight in politics. He is indeed a heavyweight having been holding political offices since 1999. He was first elected councillor in Agege Local Government and in 2003 became a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly. He has won election into the assembly a record six times. He has also been speaker of the Lagos Assembly since 2015. Despite his political clout, he could not ward off his removal, which took place on Monday, January 13, 2025. His sack, which he is now contesting in court, has purportedly caused division in the once-united Governance Advisory Council. President Tinubu was reported not to be in support of his removal while there have been a lot of behind-the-scenes moves to get the newly elected speaker Mojisola Meranda to resign either for Obasa to be reinstated and allowed to resign or for someone from Lagos West Senatorial District to replace him. Meranda and the governor are said to be from the same senatorial district.

The challenge is that the new Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mosjisola Meranda is an indigene and a member of a royal family in Lagos while Obasa and indeed all the former governors of Lagos are said not to be originally from Lagos but are settlers. In addition, women groups are resisting any attempt to remove Meranda as she is the first female speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly. That is why the action of DSS last Monday is said to be overreach and may have been influenced by external forces wanting to get Meranda out of her exalted seat, at all costs. Time will tell how all these political imbroglios will eventually pan out but I sue for peace in Osun and Lagos States.