Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, has recounted how he nearly lost his job due to Desmond Elliot’s role in the Lagos Assembly impeachment saga.
Gbajabiamila spoke at an All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos on Thursday and said the involvement of Elliot, who represents Surulere Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, in the saga almost led to his removal as Tinubu’s chief of staff.
“I almost lost my job as Chief of Staff last year because of this one. The President called me to his study in his house in Abuja during the Obasa saga and the impeachment threats. He said, ‘I hear this one is your boy, the one we gave to you.’ I replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ He then told me, ‘He is part of the people causing problems in the Lagos State House of Assembly,’”the former speaker of the House of Representatives said.
“I had to address this immediately. I told the President, ‘No, no, this one is not part of them.’ I hadn’t even spoken to them about it. Although I knew my boy was involved, I told the President he was not. The President replied, ‘Well, I’m telling you from intelligence. Go and tell him to retrace his steps.’
“I made every effort to resolve it. I told him what the President said: ‘If you are one of these people, get out of there.’ Three days later, the Director General of the DSS called me and said, ‘There’s a problem. Your name is being mentioned all over the place; they say you are the one behind and supporting Desmond in this.’
“Of course, the President would find it hard to believe that he would do such a thing without my knowledge. I think the DSS even monitored my phone. He had not done anything to clear the air, so I called him again and said, ‘Go and make a public statement that you are not part of this.’
“If I didn’t have the kind of relationship I have with Mr President, I wouldn’t be here today. Religious division is not our constituency, but Desmond was writing official letters to the party and me, causing division between Muslims and Christians.”
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Early last year, Mudashiru Obasa was impeached as the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. This followed accusations of abuse of office and gross misconduct levelled against him by some lawmakers.
The then-deputy speaker, Mojisola Meranda, took over as the speaker, the first female in Lagos State history to occupy that seat.
But when Obasa returned to Nigeria, the lawmaker, a representative of the Agege Constituency, rejected his removal and challenged it in court. Weeks later, Meranda stepped down from the position, and Obasa was restored as the Lagos State House of Assembly speaker. This was due to President Tinubu’s intervention in the saga.
Later on, the court nullified the proceedings and resolution of the Lagos Assembly, which had resulted in the Agege lawmaker’s impeachment.
The comment by the former lawmaker representing Surulere I Federal Constituency of Lagos State in the House of Representatives comes as political activities heat up for the 2027 elections.
Elliot is battling to pick the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) ticket for the exercise, but there are reports that the actor-turned-politician is not the preferred candidate for the ruling party.
