The politics of who is speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly has taken a drama, but not an unexpected turn: After 43 days as speaker, Ms Mojisola Meranda has resigned, amidst commendation from her colleagues.<\/p>\n
It is not exactly known who will now be speaker of the recently rambunctious House, but her predecessor, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, had last week stormed the House and sat with four members. He had earlier declared him back as speaker.<\/p>\n
Everyday.ng reports that as a prelude to Meranda’s resignation at about 1.21 p.m., security concerns led to the deployment of heavy police and other security presence in the Lagos Assembly building on Monday. Also, the Lagos State House of Assembly directed all staff and legislative aides to work remotely indefinitely, to prevent potential violence from the ongoing leadership crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n On Monday, following speculations that Speaker Mojisola Meranda would resign to pave way for a new speaker, an unusually heavy police presence was seen\u00a0 at the entrance to the Assembly<\/span><\/p>\n The directive to staff, issued by Acting Clerk, Mr Babatunde Ottun, was communicated in a memo to all staff in Lagos on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n The memo is titled \u2018Amendment to Remote Work Schedule Arrangement\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the crisis began after 32 lawmakers removed Speaker Mudashiru Obasa and ex-Clerk Olalekan Onafeko in January.<\/span><\/p>\n Obasa was replaced by his former deputy, Mojisola Meranda, as the new Speaker.<\/span><\/p>\n The crisis intensified on Feb. 17 when DSS operatives sealed off the Assembly complex, preventing a plenary session.<\/span><\/p>\n In spite of this, lawmakers forced their way into the chambers, held a session, and adjourned indefinitely, declaring a vote of confidence in Meranda.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, three Assembly staff members face trial for allegedly assaulting DSS operatives during the standoff.<\/span><\/p>\n Obasa rejected his removal as unconstitutional. On Feb. 27, he stormed the Assembly complex with heavy security, allegedly breaking into the Speaker\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n He resumed duties, and his supporters also besieged the Assembly, demanding his reinstatement.<\/span><\/p>\n Obasa has filed a lawsuit against Meranda, the Assembly, and 36 lawmakers, challenging his removal. The Ikeja Court will hear the case on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n In spite of the ongoing crisis, Lagos State Head of Service, Bode Agoro, recognised the leadership change and urged staff to support the new Speaker and Acting Clerk.<\/span><\/p>\n Ottun explained that the directive aims to ensure staff safety and prevent a breakdown of law and order.<\/span><\/p>\n He said, \u201cThis directive is necessary pending the resolution of the leadership dispute.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll staff at the Assembly, LAHASCOM, and Legislative Aides are requested to work remotely until further notice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ottun assured staff of Speaker Meranda\u2019s commitment to their safety and a peaceful resolution of the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The politics of who is speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly has taken a drama, but not an unexpected turn: After 43 days as speaker, Ms Mojisola Meranda has resigned, amidst commendation from her colleagues. It is not exactly known who will now be speaker of the recently rambunctious House, but her predecessor, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[7013,6944,2151],"class_list":["post-93174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-meranda","tag-obasa","tag-resignation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}