Lagos Assembly workers to work from home

•Meranda moves to consolidate as Lagos Speaker
•Memo reveals circular from Head of Service recognised Ottun as acting Clerk

The new Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Lasbat Mojisola Meranda has moved to consolidate her grip on the House aftermath of last Thursday’s dramatic twist in the raging leadership tussle.

She has approved new arrangements on how workers in the Assembly would work from home pending the resolution of the raging leadership crisis in the House.

The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the new arrangement has been communicated to the workers through a correspondence from the Office of the Clerk of the House, Mr Ottun Abubakar Taiwo Babatunde.

Under the legislative law of the House, the Clerk is the Secretary of the House and all committees.

The Office of the Clerk of the House is where activities of all Directorates, Departments, Sections and Units are coordinated.

The Clerk doubles as the head of the Office, as well as the Accounting officer of the Assembly.

He also attends plenary sessions to take first, second and third readings of bills and whatever else is required to be read from the Table, especially letters from the Governor or any other communications, as well as signing all resolutions of the House including votes and proceeding.

The clerk equally coordinates the preparation of order paper and votes and proceeding giving due notice to members of the sittings of the House; keeping in safe custody all Votes and proceeding, bills and other documents laid before the House and coordinating the circulation of order paper, votes and proceeding, reports and other documents to Hon. Members at plenary session, among other functions.

Copies of the memo titled: Amendment to Remote Work Schedule Arrangement, were sent to all staff and legislative aides in the Lagos Assembly.

It explained that the move was in line with a circular issued by the office of the Head of Service (HOS) on January15, 2025 affirming the leadership change in the House and the choice of Ottun as the acting Clerk.

The memo added that the latest action was informed by the need to guarantee public safety while assuring that Speaker Meranda is committed to the safety of the workers and legislative aides as well as a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Excerpts from the memo by the acting Clerk read: “I write to convey the approval of the leadership of the House to effect the following changes in the work from home arrangement pending the resolution of the current leadership crisis to guarantee safety and forestall any unwarranted consequences.

“To this end, all categories of staff at the Assembly, LAHASCOM and Legislative Aides are requested to work remotely from home until further notice.

“Please note that this arrangement is in tandem with the HOS circular 005 issued on 15th January 2025 affirming the leadership change in the House and the appointment of Mr. A.T.B. Ottun as Acting Clerk.

“Note that this measure has become necessary for safety purposes and officers are enjoined to leave open communication lines as they can be called upon for any assignment whenever the need arises.

“Be assured that the RT Hon (Princess) Lasbat Mojisola Meranda is committed to your safety and peaceful resolution of the crisis.”

Last Thursday, Honourable Obasa, in company of security escorts, moved to take over the office of speaker weeks after his removal by 36 lawmakers, who replaced him with his deputy, Meranda.

However, the pro-Meranda lawmakers insisted that they remained loyal to her as speaker, who decried that most of her security details were yet to be restored as of Saturday after they were withdrawn on Thursday.

On January 13, the hitherto Speaker of the House, Honourable Mudashiru Obasa, was removed by 36 out of the 40 members in the House, while the then Clerk, Olalekan Onafeko was suspended from office. But the industrial court sitting in Lagos on January 20 later ordered for his reinstatement following his decision to challenge the suspension.

The order followed an ex parte application to the court made by Onafeko through his counsel, Yusuf Nurudeen, in a case he filed against the Lagos State Government, Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission, the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Attorney-General of Lagos State and Babatunde.

In the suit marked: NICN/LA/23/2025, Onafeko sought an interim injunction restraining the six defendants from parading any individual, including Babatunde as the clerk pending the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction already filed in the suit.

The frantic moves by elders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) including former national chairman of party, Chief Bisi Akande, former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, former Commissioner for Justice, Dr Muiz Banire, and other members of the Governance Advisory Council (GAC) and some of the lawmakers to strike a compromise between the two camps involved in the feud also suffered a serious setback.

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