Lagos lawmaker Desmond Elliot has opened up about his role in the controversial impeachment of Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, revealing he signed the impeachment papers under the belief that the directive had come directly from President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, the Surulere 1 Constituency representative said he was out of the country when the impeachment unfolded, having travelled to South Africa with his wife during the Assembly’s recess period in January and February. He returned to find that the Speaker had already been removed and that most of his colleagues had appended their signatures to the impeachment process.
“I pretty much thought that the directive was from the President and I appended my own signature,” Elliot said, adding that other lawmakers who had also been away and returned did the same. He maintained that clarity only came when President Tinubu personally addressed the lawmakers, making clear he had not sanctioned the move and directing them to reinstate Obasa — which they did.
Elliot’s admission comes in response to remarks made by President Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, who disclosed at a public gathering that he had personally warned Elliot to stay clear of the impeachment plot. Gbajabiamila further revealed that, following a call from the Director General of the Department of State Security, he had urged Elliot to publicly distance himself from the scheme — a request the lawmaker reportedly declined.
Elliot said he was taken aback by Gbajabiamila’s revelation that the Chief of Staff had nearly lost his own position over the crisis. “My leader coming out to say that he almost lost his job came as a shock to me,” he said.
The episode has cast a fresh spotlight on the internal power dynamics within Lagos politics, where the boundaries between party loyalty, legislative independence, and presidential authority were blurred during one of the state assembly’s most turbulent moments in recent memory.
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