TWO AGEGE POLITICIANS MOVE TO APM AFTER DISPUTED APC PRIMARIES

Former Agege Local Government Chairman, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and former Agege Constituency II aspirant, Azeez Oladapo Yusuf, have left the All Progressives Congress and joined the Allied Peoples Movement ahead of the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election. The two politicians emerged as APM candidates for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively on Thursday, following a dispute over the outcome of the APC primaries.

Egunjobi, who contested the APC ticket for Agege Constituency I, lost the party’s ticket to his former Vice-Chairman, Gbenga Abiola. Yusuf, who sought the ticket for Agege Constituency II, also lost to Sakiru Sule Enimakure. The development came after the APC announced different candidates following the primaries, prompting both politicians to challenge the outcome and eventually seek another platform.

Egunjobi and Yusuf, who are regarded as political associates of Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudasiru Obasa, denied that their decision to leave the APC was influenced or directed by the Speaker. In a joint statement, they said they were adults capable of making independent political decisions and insisted that their movement to the APM was a personal response to what they described as injustice during the APC primary elections.

The two politicians claimed they had won the primaries conducted in their respective constituencies and were declared winners at the venues where the exercises took place. They said officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Department of State Services and other relevant agencies monitored the elections. According to them, their subsequent replacement by other candidates was unfair, especially after they had submitted petitions and sought redress through the party’s internal channels without being invited to a reconciliation meeting.

They also rejected claims that their defection was part of a political arrangement involving Obasa, while expressing concern over alleged attempts to link the disputed primary outcomes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Egunjobi and Yusuf said they remained committed to the APC despite previous challenges but decided to leave after their complaints were not adequately addressed. They will now contest the Agege Constituency I and II seats respectively under the APM platform in the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election.