Twenty-nine months after emerging as the Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni representing Lagos Island Constituency 1 on Monday took over his official quarters located at 3A Sasegbon Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
The House of Assembly, had last week, ejected 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 gross misconduct bordering on undermining the authority of the House as well as disrespect and violation of House rules.
Speaking while receiving the keys of the building, Eshilokun-Sanni recalled how the process started shortly after his emergence as Deputy Speaker on June 8, 2015, saying it was gratifying that the House had resolved the issue.
He said: “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.
“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 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, Eshilokun-Sanni said the House and the Housing Board later gave Tejuosho seven days to vacate the premises officially allocated to the Deputy Speaker.
Speaking further, Eshilokun-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 that the House took action. The House of Assembly specifically the Speaker and the Clerk then approved that the illegal occupant of the building be ejected,” he said.
He appreciated the parties involved, saying that the official take-over took so long because a lot of empathy, maturity, magnanimity and tenacity of purpose came into play.
The presentation of the keys officially to Eshilokun-Sanni was performed by Mr Joseph Osho, Deputy Director and Secretary, StaffHousing Board, Head of Service; and Chief Land Officer, Ministry of Housing, Mr Oyewunmi Bamidele, and witnessed by the Clerk of the House, Mr Sanni Azeez as well as other principal officers of the Assembly