Chief Afolabi Fashanu (SAN), the counsel for the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, for the umpteenth time on Sunday, dismissed speculations that his principal would be dropping the suit against erstwhile Speaker Mojisola Meranda, and the Assembly members.
Fashanu, in a telephone interview with The PUNCH, said his team was awaiting the court judgement on the matter and there was no going back.
This is despite President Bola Tinubu’s recent intervention in resolving the leadership crisis at the Lagos Assembly with sources maintaining that part of the settlement was for Obasa to withdraw the suit against his colleagues.
On March 17, 2025, Justice Yetunde Pinheiro of the Lagos State High Court, where the case is being heard, reserved judgment in the suit filed by Obasa, who is challenging the legality of the January 13, 2025 proceedings that led to his initial removal.
The judge heard several preliminary objections by various counsel representing the defendants and said the date to deliver the judgment and rulings would be communicated to parties in due course.
“We are just waiting for the judgment. We don’t know when yet, the court said they will communicate it to us,” Fashanu said on Sunday.
When asked if Obasa was still considering withdrawing the suit, he said, “We have concluded. You’re twisting the hand of the clock back. We have concluded arguments; that one does not arise again. He’s not withdrawing, we have concluded.”
A former chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, and member of the Governance Advisory Council, Otunba Henry Ajomale, said on Saturday that he believed Obasa would withdraw the suit soon given Tinubu’s intervention.
An online medium reported that the chieftain said this in a chat with journalists on the sideline of an award to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Lagos on Saturday.
“Very soon, (at) the next sitting, you will see the difference,” he said.
“Somebody is aggrieved and he went to court. It is his right to go to court. And it is now our own duty since Mr. President intervened and rightly too because this is his own making.
“He will not allow it to create a bitter problem. And that is why he has to intervene. And everything is back to normal now.
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“Now that he (Obasa) has been returned, I believe that the case will be withdrawn from court. In no time. Perhaps at the next sitting, you will see the difference,” Otunba Ajomale said.
The PUNCH reports that Obasa adjourned the plenary indefinitely on March 3, 2025 when he was reelected as Speaker following the resignation of Meranda from the position.
The development followed a 49-day reign of Meranda as the first female Speaker of the Lagos Assembly, a period that was, however, marred by a heated leadership crisis as Obasa, who was earlier removed on January 13, kept fighting his way back to the Speaker’s Office.
The crisis was later resolved by the national leadership of the APC, which prevailed over the lawmakers to allow Obasa to return.
All 40 lawmakers of the House later met with President Tinubu in Abuja on March 12, 2025, where the President further settled the grievances among the lawmakers, particularly between Obasa and Meranda.
The House has not called a sitting since March 3 in what looks like a pause in the functions of the legislative arm of the state.
When asked last Tuesday when the House would be reconvening, the Clerk, Ottun Babatunde, told our correspondent that the Assembly would likely resume after the Sallah break.
He said, “We adjourned sine die (indefinitely), but (we will) likely (resume) after Sallah by God’s grace.”
When quizzed further on what would be the focus of the House upon resumption, the clerk simply said, “We will resume our work. Our normal duty is what we are (going to be) doing.”
He maintained that the House committees were still carrying out their activities despite the recess. “In fact, the committee activities are ongoing. It was only plenary that we suspended, and we went on recess,” Ottun added.
Around the time, a source close to Obasa also revealed that the Speaker was not in the state as he had gone to perform the holy pilgrimage in Mecca.
