Members suspect arms-dealing
Say discovery explains his desperation to return to office
In a curious turn of events, the Department of State Security, this morning, uncovered an arms cache in the office of the ousted speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, a day after an uproar occasioned by the presence of the DSS in the assembly complex.
Sources in the assembly hinted that the security operatives assigned to the Assembly had during their routine sweeping exercise, discovered a stack of new arms, including pump action numbering about 47, and live cartridges neatly kept somewhere within the speaker’s office space.
The security men, sources claimed, had immediately alerted the state security service, who in turn sent in their men to take inventory of the arms and also take them into custody while an investigation is scheduled on the development.
The sources, who shared pictures of the arms and when the DSS operatives were taking inventory of them said, the development had only confirmed why Obasa was desperate to return to office.
According to one of the sources, Obasa’s Chief Security Officer, Baruwa Idris Okeowo, a retired serviceman, was in charge of the arms, suggesting that the former speaker could have been into arms-dealing, being the only excuse that could suffice for keeping such number of arms in the office as a politician.
“We now understand why he has been desperate to return to the assembly. There was a need for him to come and tidy up this part and his failure to return to the house in the light of the lingering issue has made that difficult.
“It is also crystal clear his resolve to resort to violence and forcefully push his way through to the assembly. It is even unlikely that he has some more at home, and why he has been running around to return as speaker.
“For us, the easiest explanation to this is that the former speaker might be into arms-dealing otherwise what could he be doing with brand new arms and cartridges in his office when it was not as if the assembly or state was going into a war?
“Importantly, the new and responsible assembly leadership has played its part in all of this, the rest is left for the DSS and other relevant authorities to also play theirs. If this is swept under the carpet, then Lagos and Nigerians will see where all of these is coming from.
“We believe that the DSS, with the deluge of evidence before them, will do the right thing. And the right thing goes beyond just uncovering the cache and asking what he does with them, there are likelihood he is not alone in this and so, his allies must be uncovered, too.
“When we tell the public that the assembly has had enough of Obasa, people don’t really have a grasp of that message. This is just one of the many impossible things you could ever link to a man occupying the office of the speaker of Lagos Assembly.
“This, indeed, is stupefying for the assembly and we are embarrassed by the sheer guts to perpetrate these things and the effrontery to seek to impose himself on the assembly as though the legislature must end with him,” he said.
The lawmaker, who declined to be on record because the assembly case has become subjudice, added: “We are even more convinced that our leader, President Bola Tinubu, is not in support of his excesses and his resolve to undermine democracy in the state. But we want the public to see this and understand what we are dealing with as a body.”
Although the DSS has yet to speak either directly or by proxy on the development even though the arms recovered from Obasa’s Office have been taken into its custody and a report was believed to have been filed accordingly, there were concerns about those believed to be behind Obasa, who are likely to make effort to kill the matter.
“That concern is prevalent now since the development, but we must also learn to credit others, especially our security agencies with a bit of intelligence and assume that there are some, who would not fritter their integrity and as well, their professional credibility for someone they barely knew,” another source vouched.
