Obasa Allies Leave APC for APM After Losing Agege Assembly Tickets

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Two political associates of Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf, popularly known as Ninolowo, have left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) 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, September 17, following a dispute over the outcome of the APC primaries conducted in May.

Egunjobi, a former chairman of Agege Local Government, is now the APM candidate for Agege Constituency I, while Yusuf will contest the Agege Constituency II seat under the party’s platform. Their emergence was reported after APM held substitution primaries in Lagos.

The move follows an earlier controversy over the APC’s selection of candidates for the two constituencies. Egunjobi and Yusuf were initially reported to have won the party’s May primaries, but the APC’s subsequent candidate list named Oluwagbenga Abiola for Agege Constituency I and Sakiru Sule Enimakure for Constituency II.

Egunjobi had challenged the outcome of the Constituency I primary, claiming that he secured 9,132 votes against Abiola’s 434. APC leaders in Agege subsequently petitioned the party’s national leadership, alleging that the result of the primary had been altered and asking that Egunjobi be recognised as the winner.

The dispute had become public even before the latest defection. In May, Egunjobi had been adopted as a consensus candidate at an Agege APC stakeholders’ meeting presided over by Obasa. Reports at the time also identified Yusuf as the preferred candidate for Constituency II.

However, after the APC’s final candidate selections, Abiola and Enimakure emerged as the party’s candidates for the two Assembly seats.

Egunjobi and Yusuf have now rejected suggestions that their movement to the APM was directed by Obasa.

In a joint statement reported by PUNCH and Tribune, the two politicians said Obasa had “no hand whatsoever” in their decision to leave the APC, describing the move as an independent political decision following their disagreement with the outcome of the primaries.

Their defection has attracted attention because of their previous political association with Obasa, who has represented Agege in the Lagos State House of Assembly for several years and remains a major political figure in the constituency.

The latest development also comes as Obasa changes political focus from the state legislature to the National Assembly. He secured the APC ticket for the Agege Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives after emerging unopposed at the party’s May primary.

The Speaker’s political career also faced a major test in January 2025 when he was removed as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly and replaced by Mojisola Meranda. He returned to the position about seven weeks later following political negotiations, while a Lagos High Court subsequently nullified the impeachment.

The APM candidacies of Egunjobi and Yusuf now set up separate contests in the two Agege Assembly constituencies, with Egunjobi facing his former APC challenger Abiola in Constituency I and Yusuf challenging the APC’s Enimakure in Constituency II.

The development adds a new dimension to the ongoing competition for the two Agege Assembly seats ahead of the 2027 election, following months of disagreement over the APC’s primary results and candidate selection process.