“Not Going to Be Threatened or Intimidated”: Lagos Speaker Obasa Speaks on Rejected Commissioner-Nominees

• The Lagos State House of Assembly has reacted to alleged attacks on Speaker Mudashiru Obasa over rejected commissioner-nominees
• Obasa said members of the Lagos Assembly would not be threatened or intimated into changing their decision
• He explained that they were not fighting with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and it was within their right to reject any nominee

Lagos State, Ikeja - Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has declared that the assembly would not be threatened or intimated following its rejection of some commissioner-nominees submitted by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Obasa added that there were plans by some people to attack him and other lawmakers over the Lagos assembly’s decision to reject some of Sanwo-Olu’s commissioner-nominees.

This was contained in a statement issued and sent to Legit.ng by Obasa’s Media Assistant, Eromosele Ebhomele, on Monday, August 28.

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"Before today, I had been reliably informed of the plan to attack the Speaker based on the decision of the House concerning the nominees of the Governor, particularly the rejected ones.

"But we are not going to be threatened or intimidated. We have said no, but if there is a convincing or germane reason for us to reverse our decision, we will, but not by threats."

The statement further revealed that contrary to speculation, the House has no quarrel with Sanwo-Olu or the executive arm.

"There is this erroneous belief that we are waging war against the Governor. There is no basis for me and the House to fight the Governor. I will continue to say that the Governor is a brother and colleague in the Lagos project and service to the people of our State. The Governor and I have been around in the system for a long.

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"But I wonder why anytime the House says no to a particular request of the Governor, it is taken by some people to mean there is a fight with the Governor. This House has passed so many resolutions that the executive arm refused to carry out, but people don't see that as something to talk about and the House does not raise eyebrows."

Lagos Assembly won’t spill discovery

Obasa also said the House has the right to accept or reject any nominee and would not spill its discovery during the screening exercise.

“…the House has the responsibility to say 'yes' or 'no' which we have exercised by confirming some and denying some and we have our reasons for saying 'no' to some of the nominees.

"The House, as a body, has refrained itself from exposing what it discovered during the screening exercise, and we are not going to be forced to spill to the public."

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Lagos Assembly declines clearance of 17 commissioners

In a related development, Legit.ng reported that there was drama on Wednesday, August 23, when the Lagos State Assembly declined to clear 17 out of the 39 commissioner nominees presented by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his second term in office.

Six nominees who served in Sanwo-Olu's first term were among the 17 declined by the state parliament during plenary.

Alleged lopsidedness in Sanwo-Olu’s commissioner-nominees

Meanwhile, criticism trailed the list of commissioners nominated by Sanwo-Olu.

Some Muslims had described the composition of Sanwo-Olu’s nominees “as a continuation of the governor’s longstanding bias against Muslims in the state”.

But speaking to Legit.ng in an interview, Tope Abdurrazaq Balogun, a one-time governorship candidate and a practising Muslim, defended the governor's cabinet.

Source: Legit.ng