Lagos Speaker, Obasa cleared of corruption allegations

The Lagos state house of assembly has cleared its speaker, Mudashiru Obasa of corruption allegations levelled against him, TheCable is reporting.

Obasa had been accused of embezzling public funds and abusing his office by SaharaReporters after carrying out a thorough investigation on the speaker who owns more than 60 bank accounts. He was accused of using his office to misappropriate funds and allocate contracts to himself through third party sources, as well as other acquaintances.

Speaking before the panel on Saturday, Obasa told the nine-man fact-finding panel chaired by Victor Akande, representative of Ojo constituency I, that the allegations were untrue. At the plenary session on Monday, Akande presented the report of the fact-finding adhoc committee to the house.

While presenting his report on the floor of the house on Monday, Akande said all the allegations made against Obasa were “frivolous.” Akande said the speaker followed due process in all his dealings. The chairman of the probe panel recommended that Azeez Sanni, clerk of the house, investigate how documents which led to the allegations against the speaker leaked.

“We also recommend that the activities of the house should be digitalised for proper record keeping and monitoring. It was then suggested by the committee that a vote of confidence should be passed in the speaker of the house. The speaker did not have multiple accounts with Ecobank, the BVN ascribed to Wema Bank does not belong to him and the companies attributed to him in Wema Bank is not correct,” Akande said.

The recommendations of the committee which cleared Obasa was put to a voice vote by Sanai Agunbiade, majority leader, and they were unanimously adopted by the lawmakers.

Obasa was cleared a day after the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) said the probe was a smokescreen. HEDA had said the panel was made up of Obasa’s loyalists.