Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, on Saturday, gave a graphic account on how a sum of N80 million was spent for the training of women in Dubai, most especially the wives of the 20 lawmakers in the state.
The speaker, while admitting that he attended the event and declared it open, said: “We gave N4 million to each of the participants for air ticket, hotels, feedings and local travel.”
According to him, “Air ticket to Dubai alone is about N2 million.
“Some of these allegations were raised for a crusade to get the speaker out of office.
“The House of Assembly is above the common standard of excellence and we have to train people, and this comes with a cost.
“Learning is not cheap and I have never collected N80 million for estacode at a go before.”
Obasa, who appeared before a nine-man Fact-Finding Panel of the House, headed by Victor Akande, representing Ojo Constituency I, described all allegations made against him by the online newspaper as unfounded.
The newspaper had on May 23 alleged that at least 64 bank accounts have been discovered and linked to the Bank Verification Number of the speaker.
The online news outlet further alleged that the discovered accounts were registered with various names and were being used to siphon public funds among others.
But, answering questions from the panel’s members, Obasa debunked all the allegations.
On the issue of vehicles bought for the members of the Assembly, the speaker said the expenses were done with the approval of the Assembly and that of the Fund Management Committee of the House, headed by him.
“We bought land cruisers for principal officers of the House. The cars we bought for them are always higher than those of other members and we followed the due process in the purchase.
“We went through the Public Procurement Agency and others and the vehicles were distributed appropriately.
“It was agreed at the parliamentary meetings on about four occasions and the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni, is the Secretary.
“My approval limit as the Speaker is N100 million and anything above that would have to be approved by the Fund Management Committee,” he said.
Obasa also denied the allegation that his wife collects N10 million monthly, saying: “It is not true that my wife collects N10 million monthly from the House. Anyone who says she does should come with proofs and pieces of evidence.”
On the allegation that N258 million was spent for the printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th Assembly, the speaker explained that the whole event cost N61 million and that N1.1 million was spent on printing of the invitation cards.
“It is not possible to spend N258 million to print invitation cards. We are not involved in such a frivolous expenditure,” he said.
Justifying the purchase of eight Hiace buses for the Assembly committee works, Obasa said it was discovered that the Assembly was spending a lot of money to repair vehicles.
“That was why the House decided to buy the buses. The buses were there for everybody to see with documents to defend the purchases,” he declared.
The speaker also denied the allegation that he spent N53 million for a trip to the United States of America with his mistress.
According to him, “We were invited by the Consular General for a programme in the United States. Later, the programme was postponed, but I had gone ahead.
“I had to return home and I told others not to bother to come until the new dates are announced.”
On the allegation that he spent N17 million for cleaning of his guest house, Obasa said: “They only remove documents and fly them around to please themselves. All our payments go through certain procedures.
“The expenditure had been there before I became the speaker. There was no way I could have spent such amount on cleaning my guest house.
“On the issue of awarding contracts to companies belonging to me, they should come and show evidence of where I awarded contracts to myself.”
Answering questions on the report that he tricked former Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to spend N350 million for hosting a meeting of Conference of Speakers, Obasa debunked the allegation, saying this was not possible.
The speaker said such a situation was not possible since Ambode was an accountant, who rose to be the Chief Accountant of the state.
Obasa said: “There was no way I could have tricked Ambode to release such money.
“We had a meeting of the Conference of Speakers, who came with three members each, and we had sub-committees who were given N2 million each.
“We paid for the tickets for each speaker. We paid for their hotel accommodation, feeding and souvenirs. We also provided local transportation for them.
“All these allegations are deliberate actions of my enemies to achieve their aims that they could not achieve in the House to remove me as the Speaker of the House, which was why they came up with such reports.”
On the allegation that he spent N60 million on social media influencers, the speaker said he did not know the companies they were talking about.
“The BVN they were flying about was not correct. Whatever I have done as a Speaker, all the approvals I gave as Speaker was given based on collective approval of the members of the House,” he said.
The Assembly Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, who also appeared before the panel, denied attending a meeting in Dubai as against the online news report.
Present at the meeting were other members of the committee, including Yinka Ogundimu (Agege II), Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa II), Lukmon Olumoh (Ajeromi Ifelodun I) and Ajani Owolabi (Lagos Mainland I).
Others are Mojisola Alli-Macaulay (Amuwo Odofin I), Rotimi Olowo (Shomolu I) and Akeem Shokunle (Oshodi/Isolo I).
