The Lagos State House of Assembly blew over N40 billion purchasing extra vehicles for its 40 members, Peoples Gazette can report, after a rare sighting of the state’s recent expenditure records. 

The records, which The Gazette obtained through sources angered by the regime of unbridled looting under Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, showed the assembly disbursed N43.5 billion for so-called “back-up vehicles for honourable members.”

The staggering sum was part of roughly N90.5 billion Mr Obasa and his accomplices drew from Lagos coffers for frivolous and arcane line items between January 2023 and the third quarter of 2024. Therefore, the expenditure did not include what the lawmakers spent in the last quarter of 2024, The Gazette learnt. 

Lawmakers and other top public officials in Lagos usually embark on mindless looting in the last quarter of the year as they seek to maximise budget performance to avoid returning excess funds to the state’s treasury, The Gazette previously reported. 

Lagos administrators have relied on its reputation as one of the most opaque states in Nigeria to avoid public uproar and accountability while mindlessly bilking the state’s deep reservoir of funds. Consequently, the state has waged the longest battle against the Freedom of Information Act, which was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and adopted by several states, saying the law was restricted to the federal level and not applicable to states’ records. Appellate courts have already dismissed Lagos’ argument and ruled the law applied to all tiers of government nationwide, but a petition at the Supreme Court has yet to be decided. 

A spokesman for Mr Obasa said the Speaker would not accept responsibility for the mismanagement, saying it was a matter for the entire parliament. 

“This is a matter specifically about the House, not Mr Obasa personally,” Eromosele Ebhomele said in a statement to The Gazette on Friday. “So it is not within my power to offer any comments on this.”

Budget performance documents showed the assembly spent N30,194,952,873 on the vehicles from the first through the last quarter of 2023, while N13,332,950,408 was spent in the first three quarters of 2024 alone. 

The documents did not indicate the types of vehicles the lawmakers received for auxiliary use, barely three years after all 40 members received brand-new vehicles. However, the total disbursement indicated each lawmaker received roughly N1.1 billion within the period under review, massively surpassing allocation for even official vehicles for senators. 

Opposition leaders in Lagos swiftly slammed the spending as wasteful and warned it could inflict untold hardship on its residents. 

“Although not surprising, the APC’s crass insensitivity and irresponsibility is a grave danger to our society,” Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the 2023 elections, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, told The Gazette while reacting to the development by telephone Thursday night. “I say this because any politician who prioritises their comfort and vanity at a time of extreme hunger and hardship is not only unfit for public service but is instigating a level of discontent that could push people to the brink.” 

When he ran for governorship for the first time in 2023, Mr Rhodes-Vivour put up an ardent challenge not seen in decades against Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was then seeking reelection in the ruling All Progressives Congress. The APC, or its progenitors, has maintained a grip on Lagos since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, despite being dogged by endemic corruption and incompetence. 

During the last election, as it was becoming increasingly probable that Mr Rhodes-Vivour might win, the APC activated its political machinery to deploy some of the most divisive campaign tactics ever witnessed. The strategy, while it ultimately worked as Mr Sanwo-Olu was reelected despite Bola Tinubu losing the state to Labour’s candidate Peter Obi in the presidential election held weeks earlier, nonetheless drew widespread condemnation from local and international observers, and the U.S. State Department indicated it was taking severe actions against those publicly seen contributing to the discord, which also led to violence on election day. 

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who graduated from the prominent American high-learning institution MIT, said Lagos administrators are preoccupied with politics and have no scruples when it involves resource management.

“These people sow the seeds of discord, and they manage public finances badly,” the politician added. “A state that cannot power any streetlights on any of its major roads is bold enough to spend 43 billion on SUVs should tell you something about how much regard they have for the people.”

The Gazette obtained the budget files as the assembly completed its work on the 2025 budget and transmitted it to Mr Sanwo-Olu, who promptly signed it into law. 

The N3.366 trillion 2025 appropriation law established the state’s status as the only behemoth in revenue generation among Nigeria’s 36 states. It also marked a massive shift from N1.76 trillion passed in 2023 and N2.2 trillion in 2024.

Still, the state has refused to open its books to public scrutiny, allocating billions to undisclosed undertakings throughout its budget. This practice began under Mr Tinubu and was maintained by all his successors, each of whom he single-handedly handpicked. 

Although federal authorities have rarely prosecuted widespread, corrupt activities in Lagos because successive administrators have declined to cooperate. Anti-graft office EFCC tried unsuccessfully to jail former Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji for money laundering after multibillion-naira assets were traced to him in Nigeria and abroad, especially in Dubai and other opaque jurisdictions. 

Peoples Gazette also uncovered Mr Obasa, contrary to the federal code of conduct regulations banning him from conducting commercial businesses as a lawmaker, ran shady business deals that netted him $2.4 million in his personal bank accounts within weeks in 2020.

The EFCC called Mr Obasa in for questioning shortly after The Gazette’s story and additional reporting by Sahara Reporters, which exposed dozens of assets traced to him across Lagos. The agency did not file charges, and a spokesman did not immediately return The Gazette’s request seeking updates about the case.