Two allies of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, have defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) after losing their party tickets for the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election.
The affected politicians are Hon. Kola Egunjobi, who is seeking to represent Agege Constituency I, and Azeez Oladapo Yusuf Ninolowo, who is contesting for the Agege Constituency II seat.
Both politicians had initially emerged as winners of the APC primary elections for their respective constituencies. However, following an internal review of the primaries by the Lagos State chapter of the APC, their candidacies were overturned.
Egunjobi subsequently lost the APC ticket to Oluwagbenga Abiola, while Ninolowo’s ticket was awarded to Enimakure Akindele Sakiru.
Unwilling to abandon their ambitions, the two politicians have now moved to the APM, where they are expected to contest the 2027 Assembly election on the platform of the opposition party.
Their defection is particularly notable because of their political ties to Obasa, who represents Agege Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and remains a prominent political figure in Lagos.
Obasa himself secured the APC ticket to contest the Agege Federal Constituency seat in the 2027 election, despite the political crisis that engulfed the Lagos Assembly earlier in the year.
The Speaker was temporarily removed from office during the leadership crisis before being reinstated following intervention by President Bola Tinubu.
The movement of his allies to another political platform could add a new dimension to the political contest in Agege ahead of the 2027 elections.