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Meranda’s Aides Allegedly Withdrawn, Obasa’s Restored As Lagos Assembly Crisis Deepens
Security aides attached to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Mojisola Meranda, has allegedly been withdrawn while it was also alleged that the security aides of the embattled and impeached Speaker, Hon Mudashiru Obasa, has been restored.
The move, according to source, is part of the pressure being mounted on Meranda to resign her speakership position.
A reports by The Punch onThursday said security details attached to the speaker including police officers have been withdrawn.
On online platform, The Whistler, reported seeing videos of Meranda going into the assembly for official assignment without any of her security aides, except civilian aides.
The paper added that the identity of whoever authorised the withdrawn is still unknown just as a source close to the Speaker confirmed the development.
“The source told the paper, ‘All the Speaker’s security aides have been withdrawn. All the security aides attached to the House of Assembly have also been withdrawn.’
The paper further noted as follows:
The source further lamented that, “the speaker is now vulnerable.”
The removal of Meranda may not be unconnected to the move by a mediating team including Chief Bisi Akande and Aremo Olusegun Osoba, former governors of Osun and Ogun states respectively to ease the embattled speaker out of office and restore normalcy in the assembly which is sharply divided over the influence of the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and President Bola Tinubu.
The meditating panel reportedly met last Sunday with key stakeholders at the House including members of the Governance Advisory Council at the Governor’s Lodge in Marina in their bid to resolve the political impasse.
Various reports from the meeting said the panel recommended the resignation of Mudashiru Obasa and that Meranda should also step down for a new lawmaker from Lagos West to take the mantle of the House leadership.
Meanwhile, the Obasa camp confirmed that all his aides have now been restored.
“They have restored all Obasa’s security aides as of this morning,” the source said.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has said he believes the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, is hurt because he was blocked from being a minister in Tinubu’s cabinet.
El-Rufai, who has been critical of Tinubu’s government in recent times, claimed on Monday night during an interview on Arise TV that Tinubu, not the National Assembly, blocked his nomination as a minister after initially asking him to be part of the government.
“The National Assembly had nothing to do with it, the president didn’t want me in his cabinet,” El-Rufai had said.
Reacting to his statement on Tuesday during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, Onanuga said:
“As a person, I think I will pity former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. He feels hurt that he was not made a minister…I think it is time for him to move on.
“You cannot continue to behave like a child as if somebody stole your bread and things like that and then you’re crying over spilt milk?
“It’s natural for him to feel hurt, excluded and I think that as the president acknowledged in a recent birthday tribute to him, Nasir actually helped a lot in installing President Tinubu, and if he’s not there it doesn’t mean that he must bring down the roof.”
Onanuga stressed that the president has nothing against El-Rufai, reiterating that the ex-governor was only frustrated for not being part of the Federal government.
He said El-Rufai’s criticism of the Tinubu administration does not “reflect reality,” adding that the government inherited numerous problems but “things are getting better”.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has filed a N100 billion suit against the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over allegations bordering on defamation.
This follows her objections to the re-assignment of her Senate seat after a reshuffle caused by opposition members switching to the majority wing. She resisted the move, leading to a confrontation with the Senate President.
The Kogi lawmaker has been referred to the Senate Disciplinary Committee following the dispute over the seating arrangement.
In a suit filed on 25 February 2025 before the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Akpoti-Uduaghan named the Senate President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Mfon Patrick, the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, as the second and third defendants.
In the suit, identified as CV/737/25, Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer Victor Giwa, claimed defamatory statements were made by the Senate President and shared by his aide on Facebook.
The post, titled “Is the Local Content Committee of the Senate Natasha’s Birthright?” included a statement implying that Akpoti-Uduaghan believed being a lawmaker was merely about “pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers.”
Giwa argued that the statement was defamatory, insulting, and damaging to his client’s reputation in the eyes of her colleagues and the public.
He said, “A DECLARATION that the words, ‘It is bottled anger by the Kogi lawmaker, who knows nothing about legislative rules. She thinks being a lawmaker is all about pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers,’ written by the third defendant at the prompting of the first and second defendants, is defamatory and intended to cause public scorn and animosity toward the claimant.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan also sought a court order to prevent the defendants and their associates from making further defamatory statements against her.
She requested, “An ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the defendants, whether acting by themselves or through their agents, privies, assigns, or associates, from further publishing or causing to be published the said defamatory words or any similar publications about the claimant on social media or any other platform capable of defaming her.”
Additionally, she demanded the defendants pay her N100 billion in general damages and N300 million to cover litigation costs.
“An order for the payment of N100,000,000,000 as general damages. An order for the payment of N300,000,000 as the cost of action,” she concluded in her suit.
The former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his appointments into the federal cabinet.
El-Rufai, on Monday, accused Tinubu of favouring his ‘boys’ from Lagos into political offices, and not the Yorubas.
He made the accusation during an interview on Arise TV.
He said: “The president’s appointments are not being made because the appointees are Yoruba, but because they are his own boys. Most of the appointments do not even reasonably cover the South-West.
“So people should stop confusing the truth. The appointments are not balanced. Yes, definitely, definitely, right? You cannot argue that, but it’s not a Yoruba thing.
“Please don’t punish the Yorubas as you have been punishing northerners for the sins of the military.
“Let’s focus on individuals and hold them accountable. President Tinubu needs to do something about that. It’s still not too late. He can correct it, but there is palpable anger in the North.”
