Obasa awaiting ruling before returning to Assembly – Lawyer

The legal team of ousted Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has said there is no plan to withdraw the suit filed to challenge his removal as Speaker.

Obasa’s lead counsel, Chief Afolabi Fashanu (SAN), who spoke to The PUNCH on Tuesday, said he was prepared for the court hearing fixed for February 28, notwithstanding the moves to resolve the Assembly crisis politically.

Fashanu also explained that Obasa does not plan to return to the Assembly until after he has obtained a judgment from the court.

According to Fashanu,  it could amount to an illegal step for Obasa to return to the House pending the decision of the case, which is already before a court.

Obasa, who was removed by the majority of lawmakers on January 13, 2025, had earlier in February dragged the new Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, and the assembly to the state High Court in Ikeja, to seek redress.

Obasa, who was removed as Speaker of the House, was away in the United States when he heard of the development.

He had since rejected his removal, citing illegalities in the approach of the about 36 lawmakers who removed him.

Upon his return on January 25, Obasa said he was still the Speaker of the House.

“My status in the house? I strongly believe I am still the Speaker until the right thing has been done. If you want to remove me, remove me the proper way and I will not contest it,” Obasa said while addressing newsmen on Saturday, January 25, 2025.

Since Obasa’s removal and Meranda’s emergence as the new Speaker, the Lagos Assembly has been embroiled in a crisis, which has proven difficult for the powerful Governors Advisory Council to resolve.

As the crisis lingered, The PUNCH reported that President Bola Tinubu drafted former governors of Osun and Ogun states, Chief Bisi Akande and Aremo Olusegun Osoba, to wade in and resolve the crisis.

The two leaders of the All Progressives Congress held marathon meetings with the parties in the crisis from Sunday through to Monday.

The PUNCH reliably gathered that the mediating panel recommended that both Obasa and Meranda should leave the speakership position for another lawmaker from the Lagos West Senatorial District.

It was learnt from some of the GAC members at the Sunday meeting held at Governor’s Lodge in Marina that the panel would also be asking Obasa to withdraw his suit against the lawmakers.

It was further learnt that Obasa would be asked to voluntarily resign and the panel is expected to brief President Tinubu on its intervention.

When asked if Obasa would be withdrawing the suit in court given the intervention of the APC leaders, his lawyer, Fashanu, said he had not been briefed by his client on such a move.

“Well, that intervention, for me, is still a rumour, because nothing of such has been communicated to us, as the legal team. So, what we all read in newspapers, we don’t even know the genuineness or authenticity of the news on the purported settlement.

“Our client has not communicated anything to us in the nature of withdrawal. So, we are still preparing for the case until otherwise.”

Restating the commitment of the legal team to champion Obasa’s case, Fashanu said, “Nothing is certain in life except death. All we can say is that, as lawyers, we will try our best to facilitate the cause of our clients.

“Don’t forget that we are not the judge that will decide the case. But on our part, we will put in our maximum effort, and we believe he has a very good case. So, subject to the overriding power of the deciding judge, we are good to go.”

On whether he thinks an amicable resolution would be better than going to court, Fashanu said he was not a politician and his client was in the better position to determine such.

“Let me first of all start by saying I am not a politician. So, the political aspect of it will probably be left to the players. But our client will be in a better position to know whether the terms of settlement that are being arranged will be in his best interest.”

When asked if Obasa would wait for the court ruling before he returns to the Assembly, the counsel said as a law-abiding student, “I don’t believe he would like to take any step that is illegal.”

According to him, Obasa’s return to the Assembly before the matter in court is decided would be illegal.

“That means he will be taking laws into his own hands, and I don’t think he would want to do that. If he had wanted to do that, I’m sure from day two or day three, he would have done that (returning to the House),” the lawyer said.

He also noted that the defendants in the suit had not filed their response.

A source close to Obasa said the former Speaker would not be resigning since “it has not gotten to that level.”

Court remands Assembly workers

Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday ordered the remand of three Assembly workers in the custody of the Department of State Services for allegedly assaulting DSS officers.

The three Assembly workers are Ibrahim Olanrewaju, Adetu Adekunle and Fatimoh Adetola.

Justice Daniel Osiagor directed the DSS to hold them in custody pending their arraignment.

The judge stated that he needed to go through the case before the defendants could enter their pleas.

The defendants were arrested by the DSS after the altercation between its officers and the Assembly workers on February 17.

In the charge marked FHC/L/273C/2025, dated February 24, 2025 and filed on Tuesday, the DSS accused the trio, along with others still at large, of conspiring to assault officers of the DSS while they were performing their official duties, without any reasonable excuse.

The agency alleged that on February 17, 2025, at the Lagos State House of Assembly, the three defendants obstructed the DSS officers while performing their official duty without any reasonable cause.

They were also accused of cyberstalking amongst themselves by recording and sending false information to social media and circulating the same to the whole country to cause a breakdown of law and order amongst the people without any justification.

The DSS said that the Assembly workers conspired amongst themselves to commit felony “by willful misdirection of electronic messages to social media to embarrass the State Security Service and its officials.”

The offences allegedly committed contravened Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as well as sections 27(1)(b), 24(1)(b), 24(c)(i), and 11 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended 2024).

On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter condemned the detention of the three workers of the Lagos assembly.

The state Chairman of PASAN, Babatunde Ogunlana, in a statement, condemned the “humiliating arrest, detention and trial of the officers as abuse of power and gross violation of the rights of the staffers who were performing their statutory duties.”

PASAN demanded the release of the detained members, and called on the authorities to institute a thorough investigation into “their arrest, torture, and continued detention with a view to forestall reoccurrence.”

He said, “The association further calls on the DSS to uphold the rule of law and ensure the safety of the affected staff.

“The union uses this medium to call for the intervention of our labour-friendly Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to prevail on the relevant authorities for justice in this matter.

“The continued detention of our members raises genuine concerns for the health and safety of the affected staff, one of whom is asthmatic.”