An anti-corruption advocacy group, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, has faulted the composition of an ad hoc committee by the Lagos State House of Assembly to probe corruption allegations against the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.
HEDA contended that the House of Assembly’s ad hoc committee could not reach a just outcome, as it was allegedly composed of Obasa’s cronies.
According to HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, some of the members of the committee had already spoken in his defence.
Suraju, in a statement on Sunday, maintained that the allegations against Obasa were criminal and should be handled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
He described the proceedings of the Assembly’s ad hoc committee as a shenanigan, designed to arrive at a predetermined outcome.
Suraju said it was curious that the committee, which claimed to be probing Obasa, gave a notice of less than 24 hours for HEDA to appear before it and testify.
He said, “The panel set up by the Lagos State House of Assembly is made up cronies of the Speaker. There is no way justice will be delivered to the people of Lagos, whose resources Obasa was said to have pillaged.
“Under the principle of fair process, the House is unfit to be a judge in its own case by constituting a committee to investigate allegations of crime against it.
“The Speaker cannot constitute a committee of his loyalists, many of whom have defended him on these allegations through the vote of confidence passed on him and expect any iota of seriousness or credibility attached to the committee or its recommendations. This simply goes without saying.
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“The allegations against the Speaker are criminal in nature and completely outside the parliamentary power of the Assembly. We have directed these petitions to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for their actions. It would be honourable for the Assembly to allow these agencies discharge their statutory responsibilities of investigating this matter.”
