Why I waited two years to get my official residence ―Lagos deputy speaker

THE Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, has indicated that the official takeover of his official residence took a long time because members of the Lagos Assembly allowed empathy, maturity, magnanimity, and tenacity of purpose to come into play throughout the duration of the controversy.

According to him, this approach by the leadership of the House was primarily aimed at ensuring that the eventual takeover would not be embroiled in rancour, ill feelings and other negative feelings by any of the parties involved.

Eshinlokun-Sanni made this known when receiving keys to the property which is sited at 3A Sasegbon Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, earlier this week.

Speaking while receiving the keys of the building, Eshilokun-Sanni said he was relieved that the House had put an end to the issue.

“This building, in particular, was first allocated to me in 2015 after my emergence as the Deputy Speaker. I got a letter from the Clerk that the building has been allocated to me and I immediately got people from my office to go there and when they got there, they reported back to me that the place was presently occupied,” he said.

“So, I wrote to the House of Assembly that the building was occupied and a panel was set up headed by the Majority Leader of the House, Hon Sanai Agunbiade to look into the circumstances behind why I was unable to occupy the official residence of the Deputy Speaker,” he added.

He said the panel submitted its report to the House Clerk and the Speaker, Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa, after which the then occupant was given time to vacate the premises.

After waiting for some time, Eshinlokun-Sanni said the House and the Housing Board later gave Tejuosho seven days to vacate the premises officially allocated to the Deputy Speaker.

Disclosing further, Eshinlokun-Sanni said, “After waiting for more than two years, this year again, I was allocated the residence and asked to move in. I went there again and discovered that the occupant was still there. I reported and about three months ago, I was told to wait till November 1, 2017, for the residence to be handed over to me.

“On November 1, I went there and still found that the occupant was still there and I reported back to the House. It was after then that the House took action. The House of Assembly specifically the Speaker and the Clerk then approved that the illegal occupant of the building is ejected,” he said.

The House of Assembly, had last week, ousted the former occupant of the building, Hon Funmilayo Tejuosho after sufficient quit notices dating back to over two years were ignored.

Tejuosho was nominated as Deputy Speaker of the House in 2007 but was impeached in 2009 for what was deemed “gross misconduct and undermining the authority of the House as well as disrespect and violation of House rules.”