EXCLUSIVE: How Lagos House Speaker, Obasa Arranged Wasteful Trip For Lawmakers To Spain, Got Paid For Bahamas’ Private Visit
The Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, with a history of wasting public resources, has again approved a lavish trip for lawmakers to Spain.
SaharaReporters learnt that the trip the lawmakers embarked on was to the Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, Demola Seriki.
SaharaReporters gathered that apart from the legislators’ frivolous outing to Spain, Obasa also got allowances to visit Bahamas for a Commonwealth Conference he never attended.
Top sources 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 revealed.
Obasa has a history of corrupt practices in the Lagos legislature and of lavishing state resources on himself and his associates.
SaharaReporters had on October 9 exposed how the Speaker fraudulently collected about N32.5 million as travel allowances for himself and six others to attend a programme in Turkey.
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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, the late Hon. Adebayo Osinowo, and pocketed the funds approved for the others.
A source close to the Assembly told SaharaReporters that the Speaker only travelled to Turkey for the 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 understudied by the Lagos State House of Assembly and it is not even the tradition or under due process to pay travel allowances 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 on October 30 reported that Obasa had conducted private and lucrative businesses since he was elected to the post in 2015.
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Financial records of Obasa showed that the politician executed a number of suspicious transactions using several companies linked to him.
On October 30, 2018, Obasa received exactly N51,680,672.91 each in his company, De Kingrun Multipurpose Limited account in a string of eleven transactions exactly the same day, bank documents showed.
Sahara Reporters had published other series of corruption claims against the Speaker since March, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission called him in for questioning as part of its investigation into some charges.
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In 2016, Mr. Obasa received four transactions each from the ministry of environment and Universal Basic Education in Lagos. Each of the four transactions from the environment office was N56,332,500.00 — all paid on April 21, totalling N225,330,000.
Efforts made by SaharaReporters to reach Obasa were not successful as he did not answer calls to his mobile phone line nor reply a text message sent to him.
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#PressPlay: “Money Is For Spending,†Says Lagos Speaker, @Mudashiru_Obasa, In Response To Corruption Allegations
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) May 24, 2020
WATCH FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/hSbe7jDDCj pic.twitter.com/UBu139OY5O
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