26042019 - Why police misuse arms, kill on duty —IGP

42 — Vanguard, FRIDAY APRIL 26, 2019
Will Obasa retain his speaker’s seat
in Lagos? •Stakeholders root for Lagos indigene
•Obasa •Tunde Braimoh •Agunbiade •Eshinlokun
By Olasunkanmi Akoni &
Ebun Sessou
WITH the emergence of Mr
Babajide Sanwo-Olu as
governor-elect, a battle for who
becomes the Speaker of the 9th
Lagos State 40-member House
of Assembly has ensued. The
incumbent Speaker, Mr.
Mudashiru Obasa, is
reportedly making efforts to
retain the coveted seat.
Sources in the House told
Vanguard that there is disquiet
in the assembly premises and
among the lawmakers as no
one wants to be seen as a
dissident. As the 8th Assembly
is winding up, stakeholders
have been holding strategic
meetings on what would be the
face of the 9th Assembly as it
relates to the speaker and other
principal officers.
KWARA: We changed tactics to beat Saraki – Oyedepo
By Demola Akinyemi
Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, a
lawyer, former member of
the Kwara State House of
Assembly, former Commissioner
for Agriculture, and later
Commerce and Industry, was
Kwara State chairman of the
Democratic Party of Nigeria,
during the Abacha years. He
was pioneer deputy national
legal adviser of the All People's
Party, APP, which later became
All Nigeria People's Party, ANPP
that merged with other parties
to form the All Progressives
Congress, APC. Oyedepo, one of
the major stakeholders of O to
ge (Enough is enough)
movement in Kwara State, spoke
on Kwara politics and how the
APC defeated Senate President
Bukola Saraki and his People's
Democratic Party, PDP, team at
the 2019 polls, and other national
issues.
On APC’s total victory in
Kwara at the 2019 polls
Frankly speaking, I was
surprised we could win all. I
thought we would make impact,
may be by winning one Senate
seat, two House of
Representatives seats and
There are concerns in many
quarters that since the
Governor-elect, Sanwo-Olu;
and Deputy Governor-elect, Dr.
Obafemi Hamzat and the
current speaker are from Ogun
State, some stakeholders are
rooting for an indigene of
Lagos State to be the next
Speaker after the exit of former
speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji from
Epe area of the state in 2015.
Vanguard gathered that the
matter has been tabled before
the leadership of the All
Progressives Congress, APC,
which is giving it a serious
thought.
Quest for a Lagos indigene as
speaker
A group of indigenes from
Lagos Island, known as Atari
Ajanaku, is said to be the face
behind the push to sponsor a
real Lagos indigene, Wasiu
perhaps, eight or 10 members of
the state House of Assembly.
I was not thinking it would be
that total. So, I just believe it is
the handiwork of God that we
were able to win all. I’m happy
because it means God made our
own formula for change in Kwara
State to work. I told my colleagues
that we could not beat Saraki to
his own game, and that is
money-for-money.
I told them we should vary the
tactics of election in Kwara State.
And that was why we embarked
on serious sensitisation of the
people of Kwara State through
our radio programmes. We
started with Harmony FM,
Idofian, Royal FM, then to Sobi
FM and later we also went to
some other radio stations even
outside Kwara State.
So, it was a way of sensitising
the people and the people of
Kwara State keyed into the the
agenda of change. We were able
to tell them what could be said to
be in their areas of need; areas
where they feel the pinches of a
bad administration.
If we were waiting for when we
would have enough resources
and structure to fight the Senate
President, we will never be able
to chase Dr Bukola Saraki out of
Eshinlokun, to contest the
speaker’s seat with the
incumbent.
Their grouse, according to
insiders, is the absence of
indigenes in top positions in
the state.
The quest for an indigene to
be elected as the speaker of the
House started after the exit of
Ikuforiji in 2015.
According to aggrieved
lawmakers, Lagos indigenes
are unhappy and feel
marginalised because the
Governor-elect, Babajide
Sanwo-Olu, is from Ijebu-
Mushin in Ogun State while his
deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, is
from Itori, also in Ogun State.
The development has, thus,
left the Speakership as the only
position available for a real
Lagosian especially when the
current occupant of the seat is
believed to hail from Abeokuta
•We couldn’t match him money-for-money
•Oyedepo
Kwara State politically. Some
people were saying that before
we could defeat the structure of
Saraki in Kwara, we should be
looking for about N6 billion.
Where would we get N6 billion?
Of course, we can’t get anything
in Ogun State.
Prospective contenders
Among those considered to
be eyeing the seat are the
incumbent Deputy Speaker,
Mr. Wasiu Eshinlokun, who vied
for the office in 2015; Majority
Leader of the House, Mr. Sanai
Agunbiade; and Mr. Tunde
Braimoh.
However, Mr. Obasa is said to
be making concerted efforts to
retain the seat by meeting with
party leaders, members of the
assembly including the newly
elected members.
Recently, after receiving their
certificates of return from the
Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC,
in Lagos, Obasa led both the old
and newly elected lawmakers
to a meeting with the National
Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu at his
near that. So, we designed a
programme that made us to
touch the hearts of the people.
While the method of giving
people money only touched the
hand, we were able to penetrate
the hearts of the people of Kwara
State, and it worked wonderfully.
Now that your party has won,
how do you intend to manage
the success?
Politics to me is management
of intrigues. I know very well that
we can even be described as
“strange bed fellows.” Some of
us are not actually sharing the
vision of emancipation, some just
came to share public office.
Those are some of the problems
we may have. But we don’t really
have a choice in Kwara State than
for the APC to do well. To whom
much is given, much is certainly
expected.
We were given all. We won all
- including the presidential
election. We are also conscious
of that fact.
Even if we want to fight, we
must be very careful that the
crisis would not rock the boat so
that we would not be chased out
of Government House
prematurely.
So, we need to be patient with
Bourdillon residence.
The immediate past Osun
State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola, who is a force to
be reckoned with in the
emerging leadership of the
party in Lagos, is working out
ways of providing a soft
landing for Obasa and other
favoured members for principal
offices.
It was gathered that Obasa
recently sponsored over 10
lawmakers to Dubai and
United States of America,
including those being touted to
be interested in the seat as well,
on a think-tank mission,
basically, for the realisation of
his ambition.
A source said that Obasa has
the ears and support of the
leaders of the party, adding that
the certainty of his return was
high.
To ensure harmony, leaders of
the party and stakeholders are
having constant meetings to
sort out the issue and ensure
that the 9th Lagos State House
of Assembly takes off on a good
note.
Said the source: “I can tell you
that the contest might not be as
easy as it appears though the
current Speaker, Mr.
Mudashiru Obasa is highly
favoured for the office. There is
no doubt that nobody has come
out to show interest in the office,
we cannot rule out the fact that
some of the lawmakers are
interested in the office.
“The coming days would be
very interesting as those who
are interested in becoming the
Speaker of the Assembly would
start showing interest.”
Obasa, a lawyer, assumed
office in 2015 after succeeding
Adeyemi Ikuforiji. He has been
in the Assembly since 2007 and
is one of the longest serving
lawmakers in the state. He was
born in Agege, a town in Lagos
State.
Some supporters of Sanwo-
Olu are believed to be
uncomfortable with the choice
of Obasa, who they think may
give Sanwo-Olu problems that
could hamper the smooth
running of his administration.
Will Obasa realise his
ambition? Will those angling for
a Lagos indigene achieve their
goal? These questions will be
answered with time.
one another; there must be a high
level of tolerance among us. In
fact, I must tell you that what
carried us thus far is tolerance.
You can’t get all that you want in
a political party where there
would be various schemes.
But we still believe that having
an Abdulrahman in Government
House is by far better than
having a nominee of the Senate
President. Now, we know there
has been a change, which is
acknowledged nationally.
APC national leadership has
chosen Ahmad Lawan as
preferred candidate for Senate
President while two other
candidates have also emerged.
Don’t you foresee a reenactment
of 2015 scenario?
There could not be anything
like the 2015 scenario in the
National Assembly of today. APC
is in clear majority in that
National Assembly.
What happened in 2015
happened because the PDP and
APC were contending forces in
the National Assembly, and there
was no clear and overwhelming
majority. So, it was just easy for
members of APC to befriend PDP
and betray their party in order to
make it there. But I don’t foresee
that now.