Former Chairman of Agege Local Government Area, Alhaji Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf have formally defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Allied Peoples Movement, dismissing widespread political assertions that their exit was orchestrated by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa.
The two politicians, who secured the APM tickets for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively ahead of the general elections, insisted on Thursday that their departure from the ruling party was a unilateral, independent step driven by the denial of their democratic mandates during the disputed APC state legislative primaries.
The public clarification followed rising political tension across the Agege constituency, where local observers and party factions had linked their political realignments directly to Obasa, who serves as the dominant political authority in the district and has long maintained strategic ties with both aspirants.
In a joint statement issued in Lagos, Egunjobi and Yusuf firmly rejected suggestions of third-party sponsorship, maintaining that they are autonomous, experienced political actors possessing full agency over their electoral trajectories without needing external operational directions.
“Movement from one political party to another is not unusual in Nigerian politics, and prominent politicians have crossed party lines at different times,” the duo stated, citing the precedent of former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, who once defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, criticised Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and later returned to coordinate major APC campaign structures.
Egunjobi and Yusuf asserted that their primary election victories in Agege Constituencies I and II were witnessed and validated by field observers from the Independent National Electoral Commission and operatives of the Department of State Services before the results were suppressed at the state party secretariat.
According to figures cited by the aspirants, Egunjobi polled 9,132 votes in Agege Constituency I against 434 votes credited to his former vice-chairman, Gbenga Abiola, while Yusuf scored 8,299 votes in Constituency II compared to 31 votes credited to Hon. Sakiru Sule Enimakure, who was ultimately ratified by the party hierarchy.
The aspirants disclosed that despite submitting formal petitions through statutory internal review channels, the state executive committee of the APC failed to summon them for any reconciliation proceedings or provide structured dispute resolutions.
They also condemned party operatives who allegedly invoked the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rationalize the altered results, dismissing the claims as unauthorized fabrications designed to shield internal election manipulators from grassroots accountability.
The candidates maintained that their resolve to seek election on the APM platform became inevitable after all options for internal redress within the APC were systematically exhausted without executive engagement.
