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Despite Tinubu’s Intervention, Obasa Continues Legal Action Against Meranda, Lawmakers

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12 months ago

March 31, 2025

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Chief Afolabi Fashanu (SAN), the counsel for the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, for the umpteenth time on Sunday, dismissed speculations that his principal would be dropping the suit against erstwhile Speaker Mojisola Meranda, and the Assembly members.

Fashanu, in a telephone interview with The PUNCH, said his team was awaiting the court judgement on the matter and there was no going back.

This is despite President Bola Tinubu’s recent intervention in resolving the leadership crisis at the Lagos Assembly with sources maintaining that part of the settlement was for Obasa to withdraw the suit against his colleagues.

On March 17, 2025, Justice Yetunde Pinheiro of the Lagos State High Court, where the case is being heard, reserved judgment in the suit filed by Obasa, who is challenging the legality of the January 13, 2025 proceedings that led to his initial removal.

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The judge heard several preliminary objections by various counsel representing the defendants and said the date to deliver the judgment and rulings would be communicated to parties in due course.

“We are just waiting for the judgment. We don’t know when yet, the court said they will communicate it to us,” Fashanu said on Sunday.

When asked if Obasa was still considering withdrawing the suit, he said, “We have concluded. You’re twisting the hand of the clock back. We have concluded arguments; that one does not arise again. He’s not withdrawing, we have concluded.”

A former chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, and member of the Governance Advisory Council, Otunba Henry Ajomale, said on Saturday that he believed Obasa would withdraw the suit soon given Tinubu’s intervention.

An online medium reported that the chieftain said this in a chat with journalists on the sideline of an award to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in Lagos on Saturday.

“Very soon, (at) the next sitting, you will see the difference,” he said.

“Somebody is aggrieved and he went to court. It is his right to go to court. And it is now our own duty since Mr. President intervened and rightly too because this is his own making.

“He will not allow it to create a bitter problem. And that is why he has to intervene. And everything is back to normal now.

“Now that he (Obasa) has been returned, I believe that the case will be withdrawn from court. In no time. Perhaps at the next sitting, you will see the difference,” Otunba Ajomale said.

The PUNCH reports that Obasa adjourned the plenary indefinitely on March 3, 2025 when he was reelected as Speaker following the resignation of Meranda from the position.

The development followed a 49-day reign of Meranda as the first female Speaker of the Lagos Assembly, a period that was, however, marred by a heated leadership crisis as Obasa, who was earlier removed on January 13, kept fighting his way back to the Speaker’s Office.

The crisis was later resolved by the national leadership of the APC, which prevailed over the lawmakers to allow Obasa to return.

All 40 lawmakers of the House later met with President Tinubu in Abuja on March 12, 2025, where the President further settled the grievances among the lawmakers, particularly between Obasa and Meranda.

The House has not called a sitting since March 3 in what looks like a pause in the functions of the legislative arm of the state.

When asked last Tuesday when the House would be reconvening, the Clerk, Ottun Babatunde, told our correspondent that the Assembly would likely resume after the Sallah break.

He said, “We adjourned sine die (indefinitely), but (we will) likely (resume) after Sallah by God’s grace.”

When quizzed further on what would be the focus of the House upon resumption, the clerk simply said, “We will resume our work. Our normal duty is what we are (going to be) doing.”

He maintained that the House committees were still carrying out their activities despite the recess. “In fact, the committee activities are ongoing. It was only plenary that we suspended, and we went on recess,” Ottun added.

Around the time, a source close to Obasa also revealed that the Speaker was not in the state as he had gone to perform the holy pilgrimage in Mecca.

Related Topics:Lagos State House of Assembly Mojisola Meranda Obasa President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

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Israel Says Struck Two Naval Missile Production Sites In Tehran

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47 minutes ago

March 25, 2026

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The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.

“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.

It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.

The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.

Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.

AFP

International News

2025 ‘Deadliest Year’ Yet For Red Sea Migrants, UN Reports 922 Deaths

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49 minutes ago

March 25, 2026

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The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.

“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.

The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.

“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.

Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.

Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.

AFP

International News

Denmark Faces Lengthy Negotiations To Form A Government

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1 hour ago

March 25, 2026

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Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /

Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.

Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.

The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.

“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.

But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.

“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.

Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.

“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.

“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.

He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.

“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.

Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.

The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.

‘Too Hard To Say’

Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.

“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.

“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.

With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.

“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.

The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.

The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.

The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.

“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.

“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”

Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.

While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.

AFP