A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the temporary freezing of three accounts belonging to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa.
The order was pursuant to a motion ex parte filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The EFCC is investigating Obasa for alleged fraud.
The court papers, obtained by Sahara Reporters, marked ‘FHC/L/CS/1069/2020’, said Obasa’s three accounts with Standard Chartered Bank were under restriction, pending the conclusion of the substantive probe.
They include: a United States Dollar account marked 001852963; a current account with number 0018552956 and a savings account with number – 5002349821.
The order which was signed by the court’s registrar, Adebimpe Oni, was made on September 15, 2020.
The EFCC said it filed the matter “pursuant to section 44 (2) (K) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and section 26, 29, and 34 (1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, and under the inherent jurisdiction of this honourable court.”
Spokesperson for EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said the Speaker was invited and not arrested, adding that he honoured the invitation on Thursday.
The Lagos State House of Assembly panel of enquiry, investigating activities of the Assembly under Obasa, had levelled serious corruption allegations against him.
He repeatedly denied the allegations but confirmed that wives of 20 lawmakers got N80m as estacode for a training in Dubai.
He had said, “We gave N4m to each of the participants for air tickets, hotels, feedings and local travel. Air ticket to Dubai alone costs about N2m. Some of these allegations were raised for a crusade to get the Speaker out of office.
“The House of Assembly is above common standard of excellence and we have to train people, and this comes at a cost. Learning is not cheap and I have never collected N80m for estacode at a go before.”
