Concerned citizens of Lagos have expressed deep concern over what they describe as a systematic attempt to undermine democracy in the state, following the arrest and detention of several members of the Lagos State House of Assembly.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded statement <\/span>e-signed by Omoba Murphy Ajibola on behalf of Lagosians and Concerned Citizens<\/span>, the group decried the recent developments, highlighting the detention of Hon. Ogunkelu Sylvester (Sketel) and the arrest of Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu. <\/span><\/p>\n The statement also noted that Hon. Lanre Affinih was invited for questioning and later released on health grounds, while Hon. Temitope Adewale (Jah) has also been summoned.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the group, these actions appear to be part of a broader strategy to pressure the Assembly into overturning the removal of former Speaker Hon. Muda Obasa. <\/span><\/p>\n They alleged that powerful individuals are orchestrating these arrests to influence legislative decisions, warning that such interference threatens the autonomy of the Legislature and the democratic process itself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis orchestrated campaign against elected representatives is not just an attack on individual lawmakers; it is an assault on democracy,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThe Legislature exists to check executive power and represent the people. When lawmakers are intimidated or arrested under questionable circumstances, democracy is at risk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The group further warned that if Lagos\u2014Nigeria\u2019s economic and political nerve center\u2014succumbs to such alleged power plays, it could set a dangerous precedent for the country\u2019s democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n Calling for urgent intervention, the concerned citizens demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the detained lawmakers. <\/span><\/p>\n They urged the authorities to respect the independence of the Legislature and allow it to function without coercion.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs citizens of Lagos and Nigeria, we must stand united against these threats to our democracy. A stitch in time saves nine; let us act now to safeguard our democratic values before it is too late,\u201d the statement read.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Concerned citizens of Lagos have expressed deep concern over what they describe as a systematic attempt to undermine democracy in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12270,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12268\/revisions\/12270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}