EXPOSED: How Lagos Speaker, Obasa, Fraudulently Collected N32.5m As Travel Allowance To Turkey To Buy Personal Furniture

In yet another grand corruption scheme, SaharaReporters has uncovered how Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, fraudulently collected about N32.5m as travel allowance for himself and six others to attend a programme in Turkey.

It was 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.

Lagos Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa
It was further learnt that Obasa embarked on the trip with only one lawmaker, late Hon. Adebayo Osinowo, and pocketed the fund approved for the others.

A source close to the Assembly told SaharaReporters that the Speaker only travelled to Turkey for 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 under study by the Lagos State House of Assembly and it is not even the tradition or under due process to pay travel allowance 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 said.

SaharaReporters had in series of reports detailed how Obasa had engaged in looting of public funds since he became Speaker of the Assembly.

The online news publication revealed how he operated over 64 bank accounts using different names to steal public funds.

To conceal his identity, the Speaker changed his name and date of birth in some of the accounts.

Aside from using Ajayi Mudashiru Obasa, he also used Obasa Abdulrahman Gbadunola and Gabriel Adedoyin Savage to register some of the bank accounts.

SaharaReporters also exposed how Obasa awarded contracts to himself using different companies owned by him and how he got the Assembly to approve N258m for the printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of lawmakers two months after the event held.

Earlier on Thursday, he was grilled for several hours at the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and only granted bail late in the night following pressures from top politicians on the anti-graft agency.

Omezif:
He's not even look like a criminal.