Two Obasa allies defect to APM after APC primaries

Two allies of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, Hon. Ganiyu Egunjobi and Mr. Abdulazeez Yusuf, have defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) after losing the party’s primaries for the two Agege State Constituencies.

They subsequently secured APM tickets to contest the Agege Constituency I and II seats in the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election.

Egunjobi and Yusuf were among the APC aspirants in the party’s last primaries, which produced Hon. Oluwagbenga Abiola and Hon. Enimakure Akindele Sakiru as candidates for Agege Constituencies I and II, respectively.

Egunjobi later emerged as the APM candidate for Agege Constituency I at a substitution primary, scoring 138 votes, while Yusuf, popularly known as Ninolowo, secured the ticket for Agege Constituency II with 11 votes.

However, Egunjobi and Yusuf have dismissed reports linking their defection to the influence or direction of the Lagos Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa.

In a joint statement, they said their decision to leave the APC was personal and had nothing to do with the Speaker.

They described themselves as mature politicians, adults and parents capable of making independent decisions about their political careers.

The duo also said movement between political parties was not unusual in Nigerian politics, noting that prominent politicians had crossed party lines at different times.

They said their decision to contest under the APM was based on their individual political choices and should not be attributed to any third party.