NOTEARS FOR FORMER LAGOS DEPUTYSPEAKER, FUNMI TEJUOSHO, AS SHE FORFEITS STATE PROPERTY
After a long drawn battle, former Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Funmilayo Tejuosho, has been evacuated from the official residence of the Deputy Speaker which the state government maintained she illegally acquired and occupied for longer than necessary. Hon. Tejuosho was elected deputy speaker at the outset of the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration in 2007 and impeached in 2009. Between then and now, she has refused to vacate the 5-bedroom semi-detached house located at 3A Sasegbon Street, Ikeja, GRA, thus preventing successive deputy speakers from occupying their official residence.
The last administration kept a sealed lip and went ahead to reportedly sell off the building to her at what investigators alleged to be far below the actual value for such prime property. The report of a panel of inquiry on illegal sale of public assets said the property was illegally acquired. Thus, the no-nonsense government of Akinwunmi Ambode went all out to legally retrieve the property from the legislator. Apart from Tejuosho, many other highly placed Lagosians are expected to forfeit state properties illegally acquired between 2006 and 2016. However, the legislator representing Mushin has been crying blue murder, alleging that she is the victim of high wire politics in the state. Sources close to her say her closeness to a former Commissioner of Environment in the state, Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN, may be her Achilles’ heel. Banire has publicly spoken out against the APC leadership in the state on several occasions. What she has been unable to prove however is that she acquired the property legally.