By Habeeb Ibrahim
Former Agege Local Government Chairman, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf Ninolowo have denied reports that Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, was behind their defection from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.
The two politicians, who are contesting the Agege Constituency I and II seats respectively, said their decision to leave the APC followed what they described as the denial of their victories in the party’s disputed primaries.
BlackBox Nigeria earlier reported that Egunjobi and Yusuf had dumped the APC for the APM after losing the party’s Assembly tickets following an internal review of the primary results.
Egunjobi and Yusuf had initially emerged as the APC candidates for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively before the party replaced them with Oluwagbenga Abiola and Enimakure Akindele Sakiru.
The development sparked speculation over the role of Obasa, who is regarded as a political leader of the two politicians.
However, in a joint statement, Egunjobi and Yusuf said Obasa had no hand in their decision to leave the APC.
They said they were mature politicians and adults capable of making independent decisions about their political careers.
The duo said they had remained in the APC despite previous political challenges and only decided to leave after what they described as a serious injustice over the handling of the primaries.
They also said the party leadership failed to initiate any meaningful reconciliation process despite receiving their petitions over the disputed tickets.
According to them, neither of them was invited to a meeting where their grievances could be properly addressed.
Egunjobi and Yusuf further alleged that some party leaders had attempted to justify the replacement of candidates by claiming that the decision came from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
They said they were not aware of any directive from Tinubu authorising the removal of their names from the tickets.
The politicians maintained that they won the primaries in their respective constituencies, adding that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Department of State Services, DSS, and other relevant agencies witnessed the exercises.
They said their decision to join the APM was therefore based on their experience with the APC and the failure to resolve the dispute over the primary elections.
