The political dispute over the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly tickets for Agege Constituencies I and II has deepened, with the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) expelling former Agege Local Government Chairman, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf after their defection to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The expulsion, announced on Wednesday by Lagos APC Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, follows weeks of controversy over the party’s primary elections, the emergence of alternative candidates and the decision by the two former aspirants to continue their political bids under another platform.
Egunjobi and Yusuf had contested the APC nominations for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively. The party subsequently recognised Gbenga Abiola as its candidate for Constituency I and Sakiru Enimakure for Constituency II.
Both men rejected the outcome, insisting that they had won their respective primaries and that the results announced by the party did not reflect the voting figures at the venues. Egunjobi had publicly challenged the Constituency I result in June, alleging that the votes recorded at the polling centres supported his victory.
The dispute eventually culminated in their move to the APM, where they emerged as candidates for the two constituencies. Reports on the APM nomination exercises indicate that Egunjobi secured the Constituency I ticket, while Yusuf emerged for Constituency II.
APC’s case
Ojelabi said the decision to expel the two was based on alleged anti-party activities, disloyalty and conduct considered inconsistent with the party’s rules.
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According to him, the APC constitution, specifically Article 9(5)(II) of the 2022 amended constitution, provides the basis for the disciplinary action.
The chairman argued that party members who lose internal nomination contests are expected either to accept the outcome or pursue redress through established party mechanisms rather than contest the same election under another political platform.
The APC therefore said Egunjobi and Yusuf were no longer members of the party and were not authorised to represent, negotiate or conduct business on behalf of Lagos APC.
Aspirants’ account
The two politicians, however, have presented a different version of events.
In their response to their defection, Egunjobi and Yusuf said they remained in the APC after the disputed primaries while attempting to resolve their grievances internally. They said their decision to join the APM followed their experience during the nomination process and was taken independently.
They also rejected reports that their defection was orchestrated by Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, despite reports describing them as political allies of the Speaker.
The competing accounts leave the central issue unresolved: whether the APC’s final candidate list reflected a legitimate conclusion of its nomination process or whether, as the two former aspirants allege, candidates who initially won at the primary venues were subsequently replaced.
Wider political implications
The controversy has already triggered reactions among APC stakeholders in Agege. Some party leaders have dismissed concerns that the defections could affect the APC’s strength in the constituency, while also calling for attention to unresolved internal issues.
The latest expulsion formally closes Egunjobi and Yusuf’s membership dispute with the Lagos APC, but it does not resolve the underlying disagreement over the primary process.
With the two now contesting under the APM, the Agege constituencies have become an early test of how disputes arising from the APC’s nomination process could reshape the political contest ahead of the 2027 Lagos Assembly elections.