- Lagos APC Agege Crisis Deepens as Egunjobi, Yusuf Challenge Expulsion.
The political battle within the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has taken a fresh turn as former Agege Local Government Chairman, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and Azeez Yusuf challenged their expulsion from the ruling party, insisting they had already resigned before the disciplinary action was announced.
The controversy, which grew out of disagreements surrounding the APC’s 2026 Lagos State House of Assembly nomination process in Agege, could now extend beyond an internal party dispute as the two politicians prepare to contest the 2027 elections on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.
Lagos APC Chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, announced the expulsion of Egunjobi and Yusuf, accusing them of alleged anti-party activities, disloyalty and conduct considered inconsistent with the discipline of the party.
Egunjobi had sought the APC ticket for Agege Constituency I, while Yusuf contested for the Agege Constituency II nomination.
The APC maintained that after failing to secure its tickets, the two politicians moved to another political platform and subsequently obtained APM tickets to pursue their House of Assembly ambitions.
According to Ojelabi, party membership cannot be treated as a platform that politicians retain only when the outcome of an internal contest favours them.
The Lagos APC said members dissatisfied with primary results were expected to pursue established internal and legal channels rather than seek nomination from another political party within the same electoral cycle.
The party said it invoked Article 9(5)(II) of the APC Constitution, as amended in 2022, in taking disciplinary action against Egunjobi and Yusuf.
But the expelled politicians have presented a sharply different account.
Egunjobi and Yusuf said they resigned from the APC in July 2026, weeks before the party announced their expulsion on September 23.
They consequently questioned how the APC could expel individuals who, according to them, were no longer members of the party when the disciplinary decision was taken.
The pair described the action as belated and politically unnecessary, maintaining that they had already communicated their departure and subsequently joined the APM.
The disagreement traces back to the APC House of Assembly primary process in Agege.
Egunjobi and Yusuf have claimed that they recorded the highest vote figures at their respective primary venues but that other aspirants were eventually presented as the APC candidates.
Reports on the revised candidate list identified Oluwagbenga Abiola for Agege Constituency I and Enimakure Akindele Sakiru for Constituency II.
Egunjobi had earlier publicly challenged the outcome, maintaining that the declared result for Agege Constituency I did not reflect votes recorded at the voting centres.
The controversy is particularly significant because of reports describing Egunjobi and Yusuf as political associates of Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.
However, the two politicians have expressly denied that Obasa directed or encouraged their departure from the APC.
They maintained that their decision to move to the APM resulted from their own experiences with the primary process and what they considered an inability to obtain satisfactory resolution through the APC’s internal mechanisms.
Their emergence as APM candidates potentially transforms what began as an APC nomination disagreement into an electoral contest in Agege.
Instead of disappearing from the political field after losing the APC tickets, Egunjobi and Yusuf will now seek the same Assembly seats from a rival platform.
The development could therefore test the political strength of both sides in constituencies traditionally associated with strong APC influence.
For the Lagos APC, the expulsion sends a message that the party intends to enforce discipline as preparations intensify for the 2027 elections.
Ojelabi declared that neither Egunjobi nor Yusuf could speak, negotiate or conduct any transaction on behalf of the Lagos APC and urged members and stakeholders not to recognise them as representatives of the party.
For Egunjobi and Yusuf, however, the argument is that their departure preceded the expulsion and that their movement to the APM followed unresolved disagreements over the nomination process.
The competing accounts have consequently shifted attention back to the conduct of the Agege primaries, the party’s dispute-resolution mechanisms and the ability of the Lagos APC to manage grievances arising from its candidate-selection process.
With Egunjobi and Yusuf now carrying APM tickets, the ultimate political significance of the dispute will be tested when voters in Agege Constituencies I and II make their choices in the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election.
