PDP asks Lagos speaker to step aside over fraud allegation

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, to immediately step aside and submit himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for investigation over allegations of financial impropriety, including the reported discovery of 64 accounts allegedly linked to his Bank Verification Number, BVN.

This is as the party chided the All Progressives Congress, APC, for not speaking out on the allegations in the public space that the said bank accounts “allegedly operated with multiple names in various banks are being used to siphon funds belonging to the people of Lagos state.”

A statement issued by spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday, said the allegation has further called to question the sincerity of the APC, particularly in a state like Lagos, where the struggling residents had come under asphyxiating taxes that are largely unaccounted for.

“Our party is not surprised that the APC and its leaders have remained silent on an allegation, which had already gained national and international prominence; a development that only points to the complicity of a party that brims as the sanctuary of corruption with an unequaled proclivity for concealment.

“This is especially when viewed with the exposed humongous sleazes in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disasters Management and Social Development; Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA; National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS and Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS; among others, under the APC administration.

“At this point, the expectation of Nigerians, particularly Lagosians, is for the Speaker to immediately step down and allow the matter to be openly and freely investigated.

“In other words, in support of the claimed anti-corruption stance of his party and the government in which he serves, as well as being a representative of the people who is bearing the brunt of APC’s corruption, it behooves on the Speaker to step aside and submit himself to the EFCC for investigation.

“Anything short of that places a huge moral burden on both the Speaker and the Lagos state House of Assembly,” the statement read.

(Today Ng)