By Peter Dansu Two political allies of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, have reportedly defected from the...
By Peter Dansu
Two political allies of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, have reportedly defected from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Allied Peoples’ Movement, APM, following controversy over the party’s House of Assembly primaries in Agege.
The affected politicians are former Agege Local Government Chairman, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, who is seeking to represent Agege Constituency I, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf Ninolowo, an aspirant for Agege Constituency II. Their movement to the APM was reported on Thursday, September 17, 2026.
The development followed a dispute over the APC’s handling of the Agege Assembly primaries conducted in May. Egunjobi and Ninolowo were initially announced as winners of the respective contests, with reports from the exercise putting their scores at 10,126 and 12,455 votes respectively. INEC supervising officials were also reported to have announced both men as winners at the time.
However, subsequent APC candidate listings named different candidates for the two constituencies. Oluwagbenga Abiola was listed for Agege Constituency I, while Enimakure Akindele Sakiru was listed for Agege Constituency II. The changes prompted protests and calls from some party members for the initial results to be reviewed.
Egunjobi had specifically challenged the outcome of the Constituency I primary. In a petition reported in June, members of the Agege APC executive alleged that he secured 9,132 votes out of 10,126 votes cast and was declared winner at the venue before another name was subsequently published as the party’s candidate. Those figures and allegations were presented by the protesting party members and are not an independent adjudication of the disputed result.
Before the primaries, Obasa had publicly backed both Egunjobi and Ninolowo. At a stakeholders’ meeting where he announced his intention to contest the Agege Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives, the Speaker urged APC members to support the two aspirants for their respective Assembly constituencies.
The Speaker himself secured the APC ticket for Agege Federal Constituency after declaring his intention to move from the Lagos State House of Assembly to the House of Representatives. He has represented Agege Constituency I in the Lagos Assembly since 2003 and currently serves as Speaker.
Following their defection, reports indicate that Egunjobi and Ninolowo have proceeded with their APM candidacies for the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election. New Telegraph reported that Egunjobi secured the APM ticket for Agege Constituency I with 138 votes in a substitution primary, while Ninolowo emerged as the party’s candidate for Constituency II with 11 votes.
The development adds a new dimension to the political contest in Agege ahead of the 2027 elections, following months of disagreement over the APC Assembly primaries and the subsequent changes to its candidate list.
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