The Presidential Campaign Council of Agege and Orile-Agege, under the All Progressives Congress (APC) banner, has found itself at odds with Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa and his allies.
The disagreement is centered around the party’s primary election results ahead of the July 12 local government elections.
The APC primaries, held on May 10, 2025, at the party’s state secretariat in Ikeja, aimed to select candidates for the chairmanship and councillorship elections across 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.
However, the process has been marred by controversy, with aggrieved APC members in Lagos continuing to protest the results.
In a show of dissatisfaction, hundreds of APC members gathered at Blue Roof, Agege, to protest the primary results for Agege LGA and Orile-Agege LCDA.
The protesters wore vests and carried placards with messages like “Obasa o to ge” (Obasa, it’s enough), “Agege says no to Obasa oppression,” and “Another evil eight years of imposition.”
They were specifically unhappy with the results that produced Alhaji Tunde Azeez and Akinola Abiodun as chairmanship candidates for Agege and Orile-Agege, respectively.
The PCC spokesperson, Adetunji Akinyemi, flanked by the group’s chairman, Sabitu Kamorudeen, and others, addressed the press, stating that they reject the circulated results of the APC primaries.
Akinyemi expressed the group’s discontent and called for a reevaluation of the primary process.
He said: “These results are not only misleading but a gross misrepresentation of the democratic will of our party members in Agege and Orile-Agege. The outcome was not a reflection of due process, but a culmination of manipulation, exclusion, and abuse of party machinery by entrenched interests who have hijacked the local political space.
“While we, as committed members of the APC, acknowledge and respect the supremacy of party directives and structures, such deference must not be misconstrued as passive endorsement of tyranny or authoritarianism cloaked as leadership.”
The group further alleged that “The political climate in Agege and Orile-Agege is uniquely troubling. For over a decade, a carefully orchestrated structure dominated by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has monopolised power.
“He exercises unchecked control over local government executives and ward officers who, by design, form the voting delegation in primaries. This structure, driven by fear, patronage, and intimidation, has effectively disenfranchised independent voices and reform-minded aspirants within the party.
“The implication is clear—any primary process steered under such influence cannot, by any objective measure, produce a fair or credible outcome.”
“Numerous aspirants under our banner were denied the most basic rights of participation-nomination, forms were withheld, endorsements were refused, and in many cases, threats and coercion were deployed to suppress their ambitions.”
They called on the leadership of the party, especially the Lagos State APC Chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, the National Working Committee, Board of Trustees, and other well-meaning stakeholders to intervene.
“What we reject – firmly and finally – is the use of party structures to enforce one man’s selfish agenda and long-term positioning for governorship ambition,” he added.
However, in a swift and decisive response, another group under the banner of APC in Agege, staunchly aligned with Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, vehemently disputed the allegations of imposition levelled against the party’s leadership.
Describing themselves as the authentic leaders of the APC in Agege and Orile-Agege, this group, comprising prominent party officials and community leaders, issued a strongly-worded communique on Tuesday.
The communique, signed by an array of notable figures including Speaker Obasa, Alhaji Jubril Kareem, Dr. Wale Ahmed, Afolabi Tajudeen, Afolabi Ayantayo, Alhaji Safari Adaranijo, Alhaji Owolabi Dada, Chief Ganiu Egunjobi, and Johnson Babatunde, among others, categorically rejected the notion that candidates emerging from the party’s primaries were imposed upon the members.
The signatories to the communique maintained that the primary elections were conducted in a free and fair manner, asserting that claims of imposition were nothing more than a desperate attempt by “sore losers” to undermine the party’s credibility.
These individuals, the communique alleged, had long distanced themselves from the party and its activities in both Agege and Orile-Agege, rendering their claims of being aggrieved by the primary outcomes hollow and lacking in legitimacy.
The Obasa group further explained that the party’s leadership had wisely opted for a consensus or delegate voting system for the primaries, with party local government executives serving as voters.
In Agege and Orile-Agege, these executive members had been constituted approximately four years ago, long before the current crop of disgruntled aspirants had chosen to re-emerge, claiming stakes in the party’s affairs.
The communique from the Obasa group says: “As far as we are concerned, the primary elections were free and fair; and suggestions by some elements that the candidates that emerged were imposed on them are misleading.
“Those making these false claims are sore losers, and for years ostracised themselves from the APC and our communities,” they said.
“It is a general knowledge that the leadership of the party in the state, in their wisdom, adopted consensus or delegate voting for the primaries with party local government executives as the voters.
“In Agege and Orile-Agege, executive members were constituted about four years ago when the aforementioned persons distanced themselves from the party in both council areas and its activities, as well as stayed away from our dear communities.
“In that context, it’s only people with limited education and obscurity of positions that would consider themselves as contenders and not pretenders in the just concluded primaries.”
Meanwhile, as the controversy surrounding the APC primaries continued to simmer, protests also erupted in other parts of Lagos, including Somolu, Third Mainland Bridge, and Ikeja.
APC members dissatisfied with the primary results took to the streets, voicing their discontent and opposition to the outcomes.
The protests underscored the deep-seated divisions within the party, as various factions grappled for control and influence ahead of the forthcoming local government elections.
