JUST IN: Lagos Speaker Meranda’s Police escort Withdrawn amid Assembly Crisis

All security aides attached to Speaker Mojisola Meranda of the Lagos State House of Assembly have been withdrawn.

The PUNCH can report that as of Thursday morning, security details attached to the speaker including police officers have been withdrawn.

The authority that instructed the withdrawal could not be confirmed as at time of this report

However, a source close to the Speaker confirmed that Meranda was now vulnerable.

“All the Speaker’s security aides have been withdrawn. All the security aides attached to the House of Assembly have also been withdrawn,” the source said, lamenting that the “the speaker is now vulnerable.”

Recall this platform reports that the development comes amid information that Meranda may resign from the position as Speaker.

The move follows intervention of the heavyweights of the All Progressives Congress including Chief Bisi Akande and Aremo Olusegun Osoba, who are former governors of Osun and Ogun states respectively.

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The meditating panel led by the duo met last Sunday with key stakeholders at the House including members of the Governance Advisory Council at the Governor’s Lodge in Marina.

The panel, according to GAC members at the meeting, are recommending the resignation of Mudashiru Obasa and that Meranda should also step down for a new lawmaker from Lagos West to take the mantle of the House leadership.

The spokesperson for Meranda, Ganzallo Victor, confirmed the development to The PUNCH, saying “we don’t know why the authorities have done that but all the police officers and other security details attached to her have been withdrawn. She’s on her own at the moment.”

Another source in the Obasa camp also said all aides attached to Obasa have now been restored.

“They have been restored all Obasa’s security aides as of this morning,” the source said.