Two close political associates of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, have dumped the All Progressives Congress for the Allied Peoples Movement, deepening cracks within the ruling party’s Lagos structure ahead of the 2027 general election. 

The affected politicians are Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, who is seeking to represent Agege Constituency I, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf, popularly known as Ninolowo, an aspirant for Agege Constituency II.

Both men had initially emerged victorious in the APC’s primary for the Agege Assembly seats. Egunjobi was declared winner of the Constituency I race with 9,132 votes, while Ninolowo secured Constituency II with 8,299 votes.

Their victories came with the backing of Obasa, who has long been associated with the Mandate Movement faction within Lagos APC politics. However, the party’s eventual list of candidates told a different story, naming Oluwagbemiga Abiola for Constituency I and Sule Shakiru Akindele for Constituency II instead.

The substitution sparked anger among supporters of the original winners, with protesters converging on the Lagos APC secretariat to challenge what they described as an unjust reversal of results that had already been announced. Egunjobi pushed back publicly, insisting that his win was legitimate and that voting records from across the constituency showed he polled 9,132 votes against 434 for Abiola.

His complaints did little to alter the party’s final decision.

With their path back into the APC effectively closed, Egunjobi and Ninolowo turned to the APM, emerging as the opposition party’s candidates for the same two Agege seats through a fresh round of primaries. The move carries added political weight because the APM is the same platform through which Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde is positioning himself for a possible presidential run against Bola Tinubu in 2027, a detail that makes the defection particularly uncomfortable for the ruling party in Lagos.

Obasa’s own political fortunes have followed a different trajectory in this cycle. Rather than seeking reelection to the Assembly, he successfully contested for the APC ticket in the Agege Federal Constituency House of Representatives race and won unopposed, a decision many observers interpreted as a strategic pivot ahead of the post election period.

When contacted about the defection of his two associates, Obasa declined to confirm or deny the development, referring journalists to the men directly rather than addressing the matter himself.

Obasa’s relationship with Tinubu stretches back close to three decades, a connection that has shaped much of his rise within Lagos politics since he first entered the state Assembly in 2003 and later ascended to the Speakership, a position he has held for nine consecutive years.

The defection of his allies is now being read by political watchers as a sign of widening internal tension within the Lagos APC, coming just months after a separate crisis nearly forced Obasa from the Speakership altogether.

For now, the APC has not issued an official response to the exit of Egunjobi and Ninolowo, though the episode adds to a string of primary related disputes that have unsettled the party’s Lagos chapter in the buildup to 2027.