Former Chairman of Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, Alhaji Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and another chieftain of the party in the local government, Azeez Oladapo Yusuf, have defected to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), emerging as candidates of the party
The duo also dismissed reports linking their defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Mudasiru Obasa.
The duo, who contested the APC tickets for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively, had protested the conduct of the APC primaries
Their defection came after a controversial APC primary in which Egunjobi lost the ticket to his former Vice-Chairman, Glenga Abiola, while Yusuf’s fellow aspirant, Hon Sakiru Sule Enimakure, was declared winner.
Egunjobi and Yusuf, however, insist that they won the primaries and were denied the tickets despite what they described as a transparent electoral process
There have been speculations that their emergence as APM candidates and subsequent defection had the endorsement of the Speaker, who is regarded as their political leader
But the two politicians, in a joint statement, rejected the suggestion, insisting that their decision was theirs alone
They said they were mature politicians, adults and parents capable of taking independent decisions concerning their political careers The duo also argued that movement from one political party to another was not unusual in Nigerian politics, noting that prominent politicians had crossed party lines at different times. They cited former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, who is now Director-General of the governorship campaign of the APC candidate, Obafemi Hamzat, as an example.
According to them, Obanikoro had previously left the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and had at some point been critical of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
They therefore questioned why their own decision to leave the APC had become a subject of controversy
The statement added, “What is the issue with our decision to leave? Obanikoro once left the party and was even openly critical of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
“We did not leave then We remained, strengthened the party and contributed to its growth. We had never contemplated leaving until we were confronted with what we considered grave injustice,” they said.
Egunjobi and Yusuf said they were particularly disappointed that the APC leadership failed to initiate any meaningful reconciliation effort after the disputed primaries
They said the party’s leaders were fully aware of their grievances, having received petitions from them after the tickets were allegedly taken from them and handed to other aspirants
According to the duo, despite their complaints and the seriousness of the dispute, neither of them was invited to a meeting where the matter could be properly addressed or resolved
They also alleged that some party leaders had sought to justify the controversial outcomes by invoking the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu The two politicians claimed that party members were being told that the decision to deny them and other aspirants in some local governments their tickets had come from Tinubu.
They, however, described the claim as an attempt to mislead party members and shield those responsible for the disputed decisions, insisting that they were not aware of any directive from the President authorising such action They said the repeated reference to Tinubu’s name had further deepened the frustration among affected aspirants who, according to them, had been left without any opportunity for genuine reconciliation. The former APC aspirants maintained that their decision to join the APM was therefore a direct consequence of what they described as the denial of their mandates during the APC primaries.