Femi Gbajabiamila says he nearly lost his job as chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu during the Lagos assembly speakership crisis last year.
BACKGROUND
In January 2025, Mudashiru Obasa was impeached as the
speaker of the Lagos state house of assembly after a majority of legislators
accused him of gross misconduct and abuse of office.
Obasa was ousted while he was abroad, after which the
then-deputy speaker, Mojisola Meranda, was elected the first female speaker of
the house.
Upon returning to the country, Obasa rejected his
impeachment and subsequently challenged it in court.
After 49 days in office, Meranda stepped down as speaker,
and Obasa was reinstated following Tinubu’s reported intervention.
The court would later nullify the proceedings and resolution
of the Lagos assembly, which led to Obasa’s ouster.
‘IT NEARLY COST ME MY JOB’
Speaking on Thursday during the All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders’
meeting in Lagos, Gbajabiamila said the involvement of Desmond Elliot, lawmaker
representing Surulere constituency 1 in the Lagos state house of assembly, in
the impeachment plot nearly led to his removal as Tinubu’s chief of staff.
Gbajabiamila, who hails from Surulere constituency 1, said
Tinubu summoned him to his Abuja residence during the Obasa impeachment saga
and named Elliot among those behind the crisis in the Lagos assembly, but that
he defended the lawmaker before speaking with him.
Gbajabiamila said after the meeting with Tinubu, he called
and cautioned Elliot to extricate himself from the impeachment move if he was
complicit.
The former speaker of the house of representatives said
three days later, the director-general of the Department of State Services
(DSS) called to inform him that there were allegations that he was backing
Elliot in the impeachment scheme.
“Of course, the president will not believe that Desmond will
do such a thing, and I don’t know about it,” Gbajabiamila said.
Gbajabiamila said he again asked Elliot to publicly distance
himself from the impeachment move, but the lawmaker declined.
“If it were not that I had the kind of relationship I had
with the president, I wouldn’t be here today,” Gbajabiamila said.
The president’s chief of staff accused Elliot of stoking
religious tension in the Surulere constituency and causing division between the
Muslims and the Christians.
Last week, stakeholders in the Surulere chapter of the APC
alleged that Gbajamiamila was attempting to impose a preferred female aspirant
for the Lagos state house of assembly seat.
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