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ALIMOSHO APC Apex Leader, Alhaji ABDULLAHI ENILOLOBO
Few weeks ago, precisely Monday 7th October, 2024, Lagos House of Assembly led by Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa announced the suspension of Alimosho LG Chairman, Honourable Jelili Sulaimon indefinitely. The decision was reached after lawmakers voted unanimously to remove Sulaimon over allegations of misconduct and defiance of the legislative house. Meanwhile they ordered the Vice Chairman, Mr. Akinpelu Johnson to assume control of the council’s affairs, a decision which did not go down well with the people of Alimosho.
The leaders of the All Progressive Congress in Alimosho have come out to condemn the speaker, stating that the State House of Assembly’s decision is unconstitutional and nothing but a way of victimizing their council boss. The apex leader of the party in Alimosho, Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo Ayinde in an interview with journalists expressed his displeasure at the way Rt. Hon. Obasa’s decision which he termed, misuse of power. He took time to explain why the party leaders in Alimosho are angry with him.
Alhaji Enilolobo is a highly regarded leader who was once a two-time Lagos State APC Youth Leader, South West Youth Leader, former organizing secretary and presently a leader in Alimosho. He is fondly called the Apex leader by the followers and the members of APC in Alimosho. He is also the State Chairman of mandate group in Lagos State. Below are excerpts:
How do you react to the news that Alimosho LGA Chairman was suspended by the Lagos State House of Assembly?
It’s quite unfortunate that such suspension will come from the House of Assembly, Lagos State House of Assembly. It is an abuse of power, abuse of democracy, and exercising unnecessary, undue power that the constitution does not give to them. All the organs of the government are governed by law. The law is so clear, so clear about the suspension of the president, the impeachment of the president, the governor, or the Council Chairman. The right of suspension; those who have the right to suspend the Council Chairman or the councillor, those who have the right to impeach the Council Chairman or the councillor, they are saying there’s a law that was being made by the house. The house cannot make a law that would be contrary to that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is a constitution of Nigeria that stipulates it so clearly that the legislature, the councillors, have the right. It’s as good as seeing the House of Rep suspended by the governor. You don’t have that right. You cannot make a law that would be against the constitution of Nigeria or that would be contrary to what the Supreme Court has just said recently. I implore you all to go by what the Supreme Court just gave recently. Most of us believed it was just based on the allocation alone. It was about 320 something pages, too encompassing. And it is well documented and well detailed. So the house does not have that right. When you look at it under common sense, it’s even wrong. How can any house of assembly member just wake up? Then what’s the work of the councillors? And if you have such power, you must use it rightly, purposely because of one, I don’t want to call him by any name, what you are seeing is too political. It’s one of the most shameless displays of political turpitude authority. Shameless display of political turpitude! Because of a person who calls himself a leader, speaker of the House of Assembly, he has an ambition. He’s been driven by his ambition. And this ambition has affected him. So he’s losing sight of his purpose, of his function. So that is why he’s said Eji must be a Chairman of the market. Who has that right? The right of appointing a Committee Chairman is the right of the Council Chairman. It is an abuse. It is an abuse of power. Look at the statement he uttered that the Council Chairman had been suspended. So all the parastatals under Council Chairman remained. Immediately, he named the Vice Chairman to take over the council. And all the parastatals behind the council to submit. Who gives the House of Assembly such power? Where does he derive such power? Where? Because nobody has been challenging him. He does whatever he likes, and he goes scot-free. Nobody! We are all a product of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And we have a great respect for our mentor. We have been so quiet and silent because we don’t want to do anything that will have any negative impression about him outside there. So, we’ve been so careful. But we have been pushed to the wall. A life was lost, a Council Chairman was locked, probably because of this, for three days. The Council Chairman was locked up by the same person. That was what we read at the house three weeks ago, when we said, you have given him the opportunity again to go and reinstate the chairman of the market, which is Eji. And the guy said, I have done all that is necessary. I’ve met a stakeholder in my local government. They all said, no, it will lead to chaos. A life was lost. A life was lost. As the Council Chairman, he’s the chief security of the local government. He knows better than the House of Assembly member.
So we have been framed. A lot of things that are unreasonable have been said, imagine someone alleging that we voted for the Labour Party, not for any reasons, just for his own political reasons. He started calling us names, framing us, calling the dog a bad name just to hang it. So we are fully ready, and we are being guided by the law. And what they are quoting is just too petty for such a person who has been in the house for 5 times. It’s within him and the councillors. It’s within the House and the councillor. Someone like us, we are not expected to be involved in it. So the law is taking its position.
An average Nigerian outsider believes that Lagos State is an APC dominated state which the Speaker and Alimosho LG chairman are proud members of, can’t a matter of this nature be resolved within the party instead of allowing it to degenerate to this extent?
I mentioned it initially. He was over ambitious. The person in charge, calling himself the speaker, is too ambitious. If he could bring a person from Badagry to come and hold the position of supervisory councillor, if he’s so determined that he wants to hijack Alimosho by all means, it could not be worse said than what you have seen. If a House of Assembly member is claiming to have the right to impose on the council chairman who should be the Chairman of the market. That speaks volume of what is happening. It’s just ambition, and he needs to be cautioned. That was why we were tagged, that we worked for the Labour Party. So it’s a deliberate act to call the dog a bad name so as to hang him. He’s doing everything possible within him. As I was speaking, the house wrote to me last year. The same person wrote to the house telling them that the IGR of the local government is being remitted into my own personal accounts. He went further to say a contract was given to an individual. A contract was given to an individual, 35 million naira was paid as a mobilization fee, and the person paid that 35 million naira into my account. Gentlemen, what does the speaker need to do? The only thing he needs to do is to ask them to go to the bank, ask them to bring the teller. I was also embarrassed. All Lagosians can attest to this. I was embarrassed. I was being called for almost three months, they said I should appear before them. I’ve never held any elective position or have a political appointment, aside being a party man. For you to have called me, you must have done your home work. But then, purposely because they wanted to call us a bad name humiliate us, make us feel mad, do everything possible within them to make us feel so sad, that’s the same thing he’s doing to the Council Chairman. You are instructing the chairman, compelling the Chairman, telling the Chairman that the Chairman should go and install your own man as the Chairman of the Committee. Where does he get that power from?
As the Apex party leader in the entire Alimosho LG, what steps are you taking to ensure the issue on ground does not degenerate into a messy one?
There are leaders in the state who are higher than myself. All necessary things that must be done, we have informed them earlier before now. The Council Chairman has been to them, too. They are fully aware of this incident. But this same person believes he’s untouchable, that nobody can stop him from doing whatever he wants to do. The governor is involved in it. The GAC leaders have been involved in it. The party Chairman is involved in it. Yet, he insisted that he must suspend him. From the information we gathered, he went to our principal in Abuja. And he advised him that they must do everything to go and reconcile everybody rather than creating a lot of conflict here and there. Yet, not up to a week, he went ahead to suspend the Council Chairman. Baba Olusi is superior in all ramifications. There are leaders, the state chairmen are there. They’ve spoken to him. The man will not listen to anybody. He seems higher than the governor, higher than everybody. He sees himself superior to everybody. So, all is that needed to be done has been done. But because of who he is and desperation. We still remain committed to our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And we are his boys. We are not going to do anything that will tarnish the image of the president.
It’s unfortunate for him to have uttered such a statement and we will not allow it to go scot-free. Asiwaju himself will scold us and will be annoyed with us if we allow that. And you can see what happened. The Council Chairman has been in his office working. So, there’s no cause for alarm.
What would be your solidarity message to the council chairman and your word of reassurance to the people of Alimosho, who are troubled about the crisis?
The Council Chairman should just remain focused. He must not allow what has happened to make him go astray. He must remain focused on what he’s doing, committed to the electorate of Alimosho. And you can see there, both the market women, religious leaders and everybody came out to give him solidarity. So, what we owe them is to continue ensuring that the purpose of him being the Council Chairman is being achieved. And it’s by doing the necessary thing that we all know, delivering the promises made to the electorate. He has been doing that, and I implore him never to allow what is happening to discourage him or to affect him from doing the needful. And to the people of Alimosho, I commend them for standing behind him at this trial time. And I want to tell you that we’ll do everything possible to sustain this. And the mandate given to him, we will not toy with it. We are not going to compromise. We thank you once again. We are very proud of what you have done. And we will continue to be by your side. Thank you so much.
-Jamiu Abubakar
(08085185886)
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