The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, has disclosed that he nearly lost his position because of his association with Lagos State lawmaker Desmond Elliot, revealing that both the President and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) confronted him at the peak of the crisis that engulfed the Lagos State House of Assembly over the impeachment of Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.
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The explosive revelation, which has sent shockwaves through Lagos political circles, was followed by a public apology from Elliot himself, who appeared on TVC’s Your View on Friday and asked for Gbajabiamila’s forgiveness, calling him “my daddy” and acknowledging that misunderstandings may have strained their long-standing political relationship.
In a video seen on Thursday, Gbajabiamila was captured addressing a room of party members and supporters, recounting how the Lagos Assembly crisis and allegations surrounding Desmond Elliot nearly cost him his position as Chief of Staff.
Gbajabiamila disclosed that President Tinubu summoned him to his Abuja residence at the height of the crisis and directly confronted him over intelligence reports linking Elliot to the moves against Speaker Obasa.
“I hear this Desmond is your boy,” Gbajabiamila quoted the President as saying. The Chief of Staff said he answered in the affirmative.
Gbajabiamila said the President then told him that Elliot was one of the lawmakers behind the controversial impeachment of Obasa as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
“Immediately I said to Mr President, no, no, no. Desmond is not part of them. I haven’t even spoken to him. I didn’t know whether he was part of that. I said, no, he’s not part of them,” Gbajabiamila recounted.
However, the President was not persuaded by his denial. Tinubu insisted that the intelligence available to him suggested otherwise and issued a direct instruction to his Chief of Staff.
“‘I’m telling you from intelligence that he is part of them. Go and tell him to retrace his steps.’ This is what Mr President told me. I said, ‘Yes, sir,'” Gbajabiamila added.
The Chief of Staff disclosed that he subsequently contacted Elliot to relay the President’s warning directly.
“I called him. That’s what I told him. Just like the President, this is what he said. If you are one of these people, if you are part of them, get out of there,” Gbajabiamila said.
The implication was clear: the President wanted Elliot to distance himself from whatever faction was working to remove Obasa, and Gbajabiamila was being held personally responsible for Elliot’s conduct because of their well-known political relationship.
The situation escalated further three days later when the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), also known as the Department of State Services (DSS), contacted Gbajabiamila directly over the same matter.
“Three days later, the Director General of SSS called me and said there’s a problem. Your name is being mentioned all over the place. That you are the one behind, you are supporting Desmond in this event,” Gbajabiamila revealed.
The Chief of Staff said he again denied involvement and told the DSS chief that he would speak further with Elliot. “I told the DSS, ‘I’m going to have to talk to Desmond’. He has not done anything. I called him again,” Gbajabiamila stated.
Gbajabiamila added that he advised the lawmaker to publicly deny the allegations and clear the air, but said Elliot had yet to issue any statement on the matter at that point a silence that evidently compounded the political pressure on the Chief of Staff.
In what appeared to be a direct response to Gbajabiamila’s revelations, Desmond Elliot made a public appearance on TVC’s Your View on Friday and tendered an apology to the Chief of Staff.
Speaking in a reflective tone, the Surulere lawmaker described Gbajabiamila as a mentor who played a central role in shaping his political career, acknowledging that the crisis may have caused a rift between them.
“I’m not saying this for people to talk. He is my egbon. Everything I know in politics, I learnt from him,” Elliot said.
He then offered a direct apology: “To err is human, to forgive is divine. I’m sorry, my daddy, if I’ve offended you in any way.”
Elliot also extended the apology to senior political figures in Surulere, saying he meant no disrespect to anyone within his political family.
Despite the controversy, the lawmaker maintained that his focus remained on party unity and delivering projects to his constituents. “My scorecard is there. The people of Surulere know what we have done and what we are still doing to improve the community,” Elliot added.
He insisted that politics often breeds misunderstanding even among allies who have worked closely for years, and that any fallout between him and Gbajabiamila was never intentional.
The revelations and the subsequent apology come against the backdrop of a complex political battle within the Surulere chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Elliot represents Surulere Constituency I in the Lagos State House of Assembly — the same Surulere constituency that Gbajabiamila represented in the House of Representatives before he became Chief of Staff.
Elliot, an actor-turned-politician, is seeking a fourth term in the Lagos Assembly, but his re-election bid faces a major challenge. He is widely believed not to enjoy the support of either Gbajabiamila or President Tinubu — a politically devastating position for any APC lawmaker in Lagos, where the President’s influence over party structures remains dominant.
Some stakeholders within the Surulere APC have accused associates of the Chief of Staff of attempting to influence the succession battle for the Surulere Constituency I seat. Reports have emerged that a female aspirant, believed to enjoy the backing of figures linked to Gbajabiamila’s political camp, is being positioned ahead of the party primaries — a development that has triggered accusations of imposition and deepened divisions within the local APC structure.
Some party stakeholders have also urged Gbajabiamila not to support Elliot’s fourth-term ambition, arguing that the lawmaker’s prolonged stay in office was sustained largely by Gbajabiamila’s political influence in the constituency.
The crisis at the centre of the revelations was the removal of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly by his fellow lawmakers a dramatic event that shook the political establishment in Lagos. Obasa was subsequently reinstated, allegedly at the instance of President Tinubu, who is also from Lagos and wields enormous influence over the state’s political architecture.
The fact that Tinubu personally intervened to have Obasa reinstated, and that he simultaneously confronted his own Chief of Staff over intelligence reports linking Elliot to the plot, underscores the seriousness with which the President viewed the Assembly crisis. The involvement of the DSS Director-General in contacting Gbajabiamila adds a security dimension to what many had initially perceived as a purely political dispute.
Gbajabiamila’s public disclosure that he nearly lost his position over the Elliot affair is remarkable for several reasons. It is rare for a sitting Chief of Staff to publicly reveal private confrontations with the President, details of intelligence briefings shared at the presidential level, or direct communications with the head of the secret service about a political matter. The decision to make these details public suggests that Gbajabiamila is deliberately distancing himself from Elliot ahead of the primary season, sending a clear signal to party members in Surulere about where the power dynamics now stand.
Elliot’s televised apology, while emotional and personal in tone, may also be interpreted as an acknowledgment that his political position has become precarious. By publicly calling Gbajabiamila “my daddy” and asking for forgiveness on national television, the lawmaker appears to be making a last-ditch effort to repair a relationship that could determine whether he survives the primary process or finds himself replaced by a candidate with the backing of the Chief of Staff’s political machinery.
Neither President Tinubu nor the DSS has publicly commented on Gbajabiamila’s disclosures as at the time of this report.
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