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My Traducers Are Behind The Spurious Corrupt Allegations Against Me – Obasa

By: HighCelebritySquard

 

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudaahiru Obasa, told the panel of enquiry raised by the Assembly on Saturday that the  corruption allegations against him by Sahara Reporters were the  handiwork of his enemies.

Speaker Obasa said this when he appeared before the 9-man Fact Finding Panel of the House chaired by Hon. Victor Akande (Ojo Constituency 1).

The Speaker explained that all the allegations made by Sahara Reporters in its series of reports were unfounded.

Obasa stressed that the vehicles bought for the members of the House and other expenses made by the House were done with the approval of the House and that of the Fund Management Committee (FMU) of the House headed by him.

“We bought Land Cruisers for Principal Officers of the House. The cars we buy for Principal Officers are always higher than those of other members and we followed the due process in the purchase.

“We went through the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) 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 is the Secretary.

“Also, it is not true that my wife collects N10 Million monthly from the House. Anyone who says she does should come with proofs and evidences.

“My approval limit as the Speaker of the House is N100 million. Anything above that would have to be approved by the Fund Management Committee. On Prado Jeep that we bought for the members, we followed the due process like we did in that of the Principal Officers,” he explained.

Obasa also debunked an allegation that N258  million was spent for the printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th Assembly adding that the whole event cost N61 million while  N1.1 million was spent to print 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 added.

Concerning the alleged N80 million expended as estacode for the training of women in Dubai, the Speaker said that wives of 20 lawmakers attended the event and that he was there to declare the event open.

“We gave N4 million to each of the participants for air ticket, hotels, feedings and local travel. 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 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,” he said.

The Speaker defended the purchase of eight Hiace buses for committee works in the Assembly as he explained that it was discovered that the House was spending a lot of money to repair vehicles, which he said was why the House decided to buy the buses and that the buses were there for everybody to see with documents to defend the purchases.

He denied the allegation that he spent N53 million for a trip to the United States of America with his mistress.

“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 postponed dates,” he said.

The Speaker told the committee that it was not possible for him to spend N17 million for cleaning of his guest house as against the allegation made by Sahara Reporters .

“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 N17 million 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,” he said.

Concerning the report that he tricked former governor Akinwunmi Ambode of the state to spend N350 million for hosting a meeting of Conference of Speakers, Obasa said told the committee that this was not possible.

He maintained that such was not possible since Ambode is an accountant, who rose to be the Chief Accountant of the State.

“There was no way I could have tricked Ambode to release such money anyhow. We had a meeting of the Conference of Speakers, who came with three members each and we had subcommittees who were given N2 million each.

“We paid for the tickets of each Speaker, we pay 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 N60 Million spent for social influencers, I did not sign such money. I don’t even know the companies they are talking about. The BVN they are flying about is not correct.

“Whatever I have done as a Speaker, all the approvals I gave as Speaker were given based on collective approval of the members of the House,” he said.,

Present at the meeting were other members of the committee including Hon. Yinka Ogundimu (Agege 2), Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa 2),  Hon. Lukmon Olumoh (Ajeromi Ifelodun 1)  and Hon. Ajani Owolabi (Lagos Mainland 1).

Others are Hon. Mojisola Alli-Macaulay (Amuwo Odofin 1), Hon. Rotimi Olowo (Shomolu 1) and Hon. Akeem Shokunle (Oshodi/Isolo 1).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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