Impeached Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has strongly denied allegations linking him to firearms reportedly uncovered in the legislative complex.
Online reports on Tuesday alleged that officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) discovered 47 pump-action guns during a visit to the assembly on Monday. While some accounts claimed the weapons were found in Obasa’s office, others suggested they were located in the former Chief Security Officer’s office.
In response, Obasa released a statement through his aide on Wednesday, dismissing the claims as a "concoction." The statement, titled “DSS Uncovers Arms Cache In Obasa’s Office Day After Lagos Assembly Drama,” rejected the reports as false and malicious.
“The ill-conceived story, apart from being a complete concoction, clearly exposes its author and paymasters as maliciously of low intelligent quotient, only out to malign my hard-earned reputation spanning decades of political leadership and legislative hard work,” Obasa said.
He argued that the reports were an attempt to tarnish his reputation and noted that he had been out of the country when the alleged discovery was made. “It is public knowledge that I travelled abroad around the end of December and returned in January, by which time I had been removed. This matter is currently before the court of law for adjudication.”
Obasa further alleged that his office was broken into and ransacked after his removal, adding that the claim of an arms discovery was an afterthought aimed at justifying actions taken against him.
“I consider their purported sudden discovery of a ‘cache of arms’ in the Speaker’s Office as nothing but an afterthought, having sensed the futility of their illegal actions,” he stated.
The DSS has yet to officially confirm the discovery of any firearms within the Assembly premises.