{"id":4789,"date":"2025-03-13T16:26:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2025-03-13T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:27:01","slug":"tinubu-overrules-akande-panel-backs-obasa-as-lagos-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/03\/13\/tinubu-overrules-akande-panel-backs-obasa-as-lagos-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinubu Overrules Akande Panel, Backs Obasa As Lagos Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Bola Tinubu has resolved the leadership crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly, backing the return of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker, despite an earlier recommendation for his resignation.<\/p>\n

The resolution came after a meeting between Tinubu and all 40 lawmakers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s decision contradicts the recommendations of a panel he had set up to mediate the crisis.<\/p>\n

The panel, led by former Osun State Governor, Chief Bisi Akande, and former Ogun State Governor, Olusegun Osoba, along with the leadership of the Governance Advisory Council, had advised that Obasa should step down after being reinstated.<\/p>\n

The panel initially recommended that Mojisola Meranda resign as Speaker to allow for Obasa\u2019s return, with the understanding that he would also resign shortly after, making way for a new Speaker from Lagos West to balance the state\u2019s political structure.<\/p>\n

On March 3, 2025, 49 days after Obasa\u2019s impeachment, Meranda resigned and was re-elected as Deputy Speaker.<\/p>\n

Obasa was then reinstated as Speaker in line with the agreement.<\/p>\n

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However, contrary to the deal, Obasa adjourned the Assembly indefinitely and refused to resign as expected.<\/p>\n

Obasa had been removed on January 13, 2025, by 35 lawmakers, who accused him of high-handedness, financial misappropriation, and authoritarian leadership.<\/p>\n

Meranda replaced him but later resigned under pressure from party leaders.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, lawmakers arrived at the Presidential Villa in Abuja in a Coaster bus around 2 pm, after which security officials ushered them into the President\u2019s office complex.<\/p>\n

Meranda arrived with her colleagues, while Obasa arrived separately at about 3 pm.<\/p>\n

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The meeting held behind closed doors. A Presidency official, who spoke anonymously for lack of authourisation, said Tinubu had brokered peace among the warring factions, asking members to work with Obasa to ensure stability in the Assembly and the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cTinubu met the lawmakers behind closed-doors. They spoke on their grievances and the President has resolved the problems.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith the development, Obasa will stay as Speaker. His position is no longer threatened. All the lawmakers have agreed to work with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all had a photo session with the President after the meeting. It went well,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

While some Lagos stakeholders are displeased that the original agreement was not upheld, the source assured that the President would engage all aggrieved parties to maintain unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome stakeholders are naturally displeased Obasa reneged on the agreement with the Akande panel. I\u2019m sure the President would engage everyone to settle the matter,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

Another source close to Obasa revealed that Tinubu also directed the Speaker to withdraw his lawsuit challenging his impeachment at the Lagos State High Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President told the lawmakers to allow Obasa to work, and Obasa should also withdraw the case against Meranda and the lawmakers in court. The lawmakers have agreed to this,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Obasa\u2019s lawyer, Chief Fashanu Afolabi (SAN), had said\u00a0 that the Speaker did not withdraw his suit despite his reinstatement as Speaker.<\/p>\n

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He said the allegations Obasa by the lawmakers were heavy and needed to be trashed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there are some issues that are still pending within the context of notice of allegation. The case of allegation contains reasons for the impeachment which include highhandedness, fraudulent malpractices and the rest and we feel that those issues must be trashed out,\u201d he told The PUNCH in a telephone interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Justice Yetunde Pinheiro of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja had on Monday adjourned the hearing of a suit filed by Obasa to March 17, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Bola Tinubu has resolved the leadership crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly, backing the return of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker, despite an earlier recommendation for his resignation. The resolution came after...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4792,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions\/4792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}