The whereabouts of supporters of the impeached Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, arrested at the Assembly on Monday were unknown as of Tuesday.
Naijaonpoint recalls that Obasa was on Monday impeached by 32 or 40 lawmakers and was replaced by Deputy Speaker Mojisola Meranda.
The supporters, numbering about 15 who stormed the complex to protest Obasa’s removal as Speaker, were rounded up by security operatives and locked up in a van stationed at the gate.
The security operatives were said to have swooped in on them after they arrived at the gate of the Assembly complex to show solidarity with the impeached Speaker.
Some of them who managed to escape and were found to be loitering around the area were also picked up by the police.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Task Force, Raheem Gbadeyan, told The PUNCH that the arrested loyalists were not in their custody.
“We were not involved in the operation. The task force van may have been deployed by the Commissioner of Police. You can reach out to Hundeyin,” Gbadeyan said.
The Lagos Police Command Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, could not be reached by the aforementioned publication to confirm the custody of Obasa’s loyalists as he did not pick up the calls placed to his mobile line.
A source in the community, however, told The PUNCH that arrested loyalists were released on Monday night.
The source said: “They have returned to the community. They were released around 11pm on Monday.”
In related news, as of Tuesday, patrol vehicles and armed personnel remained stationed at the entrance of the Lagos Assembly complex.
Battle-ready armed security agents were seen manning the Assembly complex.