Mosunmola Rotimi Sangodara, a member of the All Progressives Congress, is the lawmaker representing Surulere Constituency 2 in the 10th Lagos State House of Assembly.
She was first elected into the House under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 and served as the minority whip of the eight assembly.
She subsequently defected to the APC and was re-elected in 2019 and 2023 under the aegis of the ruling party.
As a lawmaker, Mrs. Sangodara has faced allegations of certificate forgery.
Early life and education
Mrs. Sangodara was born in Lagos on April 25, 1964.
She received all her education, from primary to tertiary level, in Lagos, mostly in the Yaba area.
However, she has faced accusations of certificate forgery. In October 2022, a witness testified in court that Mrs. Sangodara forged her primary school certificate from Marywood Primary School, Ebute Metta.
A deputy registrar of the Yaba College of Technology also testified that Mrs. Sangodara did not graduate from the school and was not awarded a Higher National Diploma (HND).
In January 2023, a few weeks before the general elections, a federal high court in Ikoyi acquitted Mrs. Sangodara of all the charges and upheld her nomination as the APC candidate for Surulere Constituency 2.
Political career
Mrs. Sangodara has been described as a “grassroots democrat” for her work at the local level.
However, the run-up to her 2023 election was dominated by allegations of certificate forgery which threatened to jeopardise her APC candidature.
In June 2022, Olasukanmi Kazeem Shittu filed a case against her at a federal high court, accusing her of forgery and other related offences.
Shittu was one of the Lagos APC candidates who Sangodara defeated in the primaries to emerge as the party’s sole flagbearer for the Surulere Constituency 2.
Of particular interest was the degrees Sangodara claimed she obtained from Lagos State Polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology.
There were also apparent irregularities regarding the dates of her education and the dates of her NYSC exemption certificate.
Despite these accusations, the court dismissed the case and Sangodara went ahead to contest at the 2023 elections under the APC.
Legislative work
Mrs. Sangodara has served in various capacities in the House.
As an opposition member, she was a minority whip. In the ninth assembly, after joining the APC, she was appointed as the House’s deputy chief whip.
Mrs. Sangodara has also served and chaired a number of committees.
She has chaired both the House committee on inter-parliamentary relations and the House committee on women affairs, poverty alleviation and job creation.
At the 10th assembly, Mrs. Sangodara is the chairman of the House committee on education (ministry and agency).
Mrs. Sangodara has also been a member of the House committees on health services, public accounts (state), Member House Committee on local government administration and chieftaincy affairs, energy and mineral resources.
As a lawmaker, she has also been involved in constituency projects.
Within one year of being a lawmaker, she reportedly moved for the provision of eight boreholes in the seven communities within her constituency and the building of a primary school in Itire.