Lagos Speaker Obasa Debunks Attack On Otitoju, N50 Million Thugs Sponsor
By Tolani Abati
It has suddenly dawned on Sahara Reporters that it is drowning. Its fear is now embedded with goose pimples following its realization that Speaker Mudashiru Obasa of the Lagos state House of Assembly, who, with its series of concocted reports, it has maligned, insulted, demeaned and slandered, has remained quiet. What do they say about silence being golden?
The report of Sahara Reporters of Sunday, May 3, 2020, showed simply that the medium understands the weight of the various allegations it had levelled against the Speaker, mostly with fake documents, which it now has the onus of proving. We were sure it would soon run out of the fake documents delivered to it by its co-travellers and irredeemable purveyors of discredited information.
What next? It decided to come out with another weighty allegation of the Speaker being the sponsor of a supposed cult group, the Awawa boys. Not done, it also alleges that the Speaker is expending a whopping N50 million to sponsor a protest and burn down the HEDA Resource Centre.
What is Obasa’s sin? He presided over a sitting that suspended four members of the House for leaking out information that was later even discovered to be sensational rather than the truth.
The medium celebrated documents handed to it without even taking a little pain to verify. No wonder it rushed into posting a bank document to give credit to its report that the Speaker spent N17 million on maintenance of his office and official guest house.
If the medium is not one that was poised to damage whatever is left of public perception about it, it would have asked its informants for the details of the supposed contracts or even reached out to the House to for the needed details.
First, to curry sympathy, the medium, which is best known for blackmailing people just to milk them of their resources, has brought in a foremost journalist, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju and a responsible medium, the TVC.
For the avoidance of doubt, Otitoju has been a friend of the Lagos state House of Assembly just like the television organization. We know Otitoju to be who he is – one who looks critically at issues and paves a solution out of a problem.
The same Otitoju has had cause to also commend the Speaker at intervals, maybe Sahara Reporters never realized that. Sahara Reporters, discovered it is drowning, has decided to catch at any straw to win public sympathy. Let me make it clear: OBASA, A SENIOR LAWMAKER, WILL NEVER DESCEND TO WHAT SAHARA REPORTERS EXPECT OR ANTICIPATE.
It is laughable that Sahara Reporters is now being chased by its own shadows. The only admonition is that the news organization should be sure it actually presented the right documents to the public and can truly prove its allegations.
