Lagos House of Assembly under Obasa squanders N200million on end-of-year party amid economic hardship
SAHARA REPORTERS
The Lagos State House of Assembly under the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, spent at least N200million on Friday evening to organise a lavish end-of-year party for its members amid the gruelling economic hardship being faced by most residents in Lagos and nationwide.
SaharaReporters learnt from top sources in the know that the Assembly members spent N200million on the programme where they invited musicians and engaged in other merrymaking fanfare.
According to the invitation of the Assembly’s party and 22nd Annual Thanksgiving Service seen by SaharaReporters, the event held at the complex and brought together singers and other artists.
“A whoopping 200million was spent on that end-of-year party by the Lagos assembly,” a top source revealed.
This alarming spending is amid the huge foreign debts amassed by the state government under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.
SaharaReporters had during the week reported that the Lagos State government on its foreign loans in 2023 recorded a loss of N578billion, which was basically attributed to the depreciation of naira against the United States’ dollar.
The state government in its 2023 audit report had said that under the leadership of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, it lost the sum of N578,030,326,000, against N20,488,535,000 it recorded in 2022.
SaharaReporters’ review of the audit report showed that the amount of money the state recorded on its “Exchange Loss on Foreign Loans” is N263,753,866,000 higher than what the state recorded as its capital expenditure for 2023 which stood at N314,276,460,000.
The acting State Auditor General of the state, Dr. Muyiwa John Adetola, in his comment stated, “Exchange gains and losses arise as a result of translation of balances of monetary items at year end using the foreign exchange closing rate.”
This is not the first time the Obasa-led assembly has engaged in lavish expenses fom public funds.
SaharaReporters had reported in February 2021 that the Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Obasa, notorious for fraud and with a history of wasteful resources, approved a lavish trip for lawmakers to Spain.
SaharaReporters had learnt that the trip the lawmakers embarked on was to the then Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, Demola Seriki.
SaharaReporters had gathered that after the legislators’ outing to Spain, Obasa also got allowances to visit Bahamas for a Commonwealth Conference he never attended.
Top sources had told SaharaReporters that in order to cover up for the allowances he got for the conference which he never attended, Obasa later went to the country on a private visit and met with friends and associates – a trip which had no bearing on his office or the state.
“He approved a wasteful trip by Lagos lawmakers to visit the Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, Demola Seriki. The Lagos Speaker also paid himself for a trip to the commonwealth conference but he did not attend. He paid himself and later went to Bahamas when he was found out. But it was a private visit,” one of the sources had revealed.
Obasa has a history of corruption in the Lagos legislature and of lavishing state resources on himself and his associates.
SaharaReporters had exposed how the speaker fraudulently collected about N32.5million as travel allowance for himself and six others to attend a programme in Turkey.
It had been learnt that Obasa got the House to approve the fund to facilitate a trip to the European country to understudy the transformation of the Turkish parliament.
In a document sighted by SaharaReporters dated July 09, 2018, the Speaker had requested the Assembly to release the funds, so he could attend the summit along with six others.
It was further learnt that Obasa embarked on the trip with only one lawmaker, late Hon. Adebayo Osinowo, and pocketed the fund approved for the others.
A source close to the Assembly told SaharaReporters that the Speaker only travelled to Turkey for purchase of house furniture as the Turkish parliament had no record of him or the Lagos House of Assembly coming to the country for any fact-finding mission.
“Though Nike, his mistress collected cash of N3,612,299, no personal assistant, orderly, official of grade level 13 travelled with him and no consultants.
“He only went to Turkey for purchase of furniture which indeed is a contraband and the Turkish parliament has no record of him or Lagos State House of Assembly to understudy the Turkish government as a whole.
“The transformation of Turkish parliament was not under study by the Lagos State House of Assembly and it is not even the tradition or under due process to pay travel allowance of any consultant, indeed Obasa is the consultant himself.
“Apart from buying furniture, he also went to Turkey to open discussion with a tile company for local partnership of tile making at his acquired land on Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
“All the estacodes and flight fare for the aides were collected by Obasa without any of them on the trip only the usual lady, Nike, collected her allocated money in cash.
“Only one honourable member, late Hon. Osinowo, made the trip and was surprised on arrival in Turkey to discover no official meeting or visit to Turkish parliament happened except private trips to the tile company by Obasa and his business partners,” the source had said.
SaharaReporters also reported that Obasa conducted private and lucrative businesses since he was elected to the post in 2015.
Financial records of Obasa showed that the politician executed a laundry of suspicious transactions using several companies linked to him.
On October 30, 2018, Obasa received exactly N51,680,672.91 each into his company De Kingrun Multipurpose Limited account in a string of eleven transactions on exactly the same day, bank documents showed.
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN SAHARA REPORTERS
