Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) of the Labour Party (LP) has denounced the profaning of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA), which he portrayed as a show of shame showcased by members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
“The APC has sort of normalized this idea of using intimidation and force to get their way, and that is what we say today,” the Lagos LP 2023 gubernatorial candidate said on a televised show.
“An attempt to intimidate the speaker to resign and step aside using armed men and the threat of violence, and that is unacceptable,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, armed security officers drawn from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) were at the hallowed chamber, supposedly preventing the Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, from gaining access till hours later. When she at long last presided over plenary, she became emotional as lawmakers passed a vote of confidence in her.
The state law making body has been entangled in a leadership tussle for weeks following the removal of Mudashiru Obasa as the speaker of the Assembly and the election of Meranda.
While more than 32 pro-Meranda lawmakers in the 40-member Assembly pledged allegiance to the first female speaker, Obasa has insisted that his removal was illegal and has gone to court to contend the process.
The former LP gubernatorial candidate censured the attack of the state assembly by armed security officials and asked President Bola Tinubu and the APC Governors’ Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos to put Obasa in check.
Rhodes-Vivour said, “His (Obasa’s) leaders in the GAC, the president, should call him to order. Lagos State has advanced way past. We don’t want to go to new lows. There are civilised ways to handle these things. His party should call him to order.”
He portrayed the drama at the assembly complex as an attack on the state law making body, saying that anybody attempting to grab the leadership of the House for whatever political interest ought to be ashamed.
“Armed men coming into the assembly is a big low and a disgrace to our politics in Lagos. It’s completely disgraceful,” he said.
It’s unfortunate that all the allegations that were brought before the former speaker, all sorts of corruption allegations, we have not seen anything come out of it,” he said, even as he called on anti-graft agency EFCC to probe the allegations against Obasa.
