A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Fouad Oki, on Monday warned that the crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly is assuming a dangerously monstrous dimension.
He said if this was allowed to go on, the Rivers Assembly tussle would be a child’s play compared to that of Lagos, adding that the ongoing speakership tussle would be a mother of all state legislative crisis in Nigeria.
The party chieftain made this assertion on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday few hours after armed security officers drawn from the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services stormed the hallowed chamber.
The security personnel prevented the newly elected Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, from gaining entrance till hours later.
When she finally presided over the plenary, she became tearful and emotional as lawmakers passed a vote of confidence in her.
“If you see what happened today, you will begin to look at Rivers State, the mayhem that is also consuming to Osun State, you look at what is also happening in Kano, you put all of these together, and it will be like a child’s play to (that of) Lagos,” Oki told Channels Television.
The removal of Mudashiru Obasa as the speaker of the Lagos Assembly has embroiled the House in a leadership tussle for weeks now.
Obasa has insisted that his removal was illegal and has gone to court to challenge the process.
Oki described Monday’s hullabaloo at Lagos Assembly as a show of shame and a setback for democracy.
“Today is a sad day for me and indeed for all lovers of democracy in Nigeria,” he added.
Oki said “enough of begging and enough of appeasement”, saying that he and other comrades who were in the trenches during the fight for democracy would defend what they believed in.
“If there are those who do not have a sense of history, those who may either be benefactors of Hon Mudashiru Obasa or supporting him to cause a breach of the peace in Lagos, we will again put our lives on the line to defend democracy,” he said.
