The Presidential Campaign Council of Agege and Orile-Agege under the banner of the All Progressives Congress, on Tuesday, locked horns with the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, and his group over the results of the party’s primaries ahead of the July 12 local government elections.
The party’s primaries for all 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas in respect of chairmanship and councillorship elections were held on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at the party’s state secretariat, Ikeja.
However, controversies and protests from aggrieved APC members in Lagos have continued to trail the process and results of the primaries.
The PCC rallied hundreds of members at Blue Roof, Agege, protesting the result of the Agege LGA and Orile-Agege LCDA at the primaries.
The group’s members wore vests, held several placards and banners bearing inscriptions like “Obasa o to ge (Obasa, it’s enough),” “Agege says no to Obasa oppression,” “Obasa owns the structure and the delegates, therefore there cannot be justice,” and “Another evil eight years of imposition,” among others.
They were protesting the results of the primaries that produced candidates for the Agege and Orile Agege councils.
At Agege and Orile-Agege, Alhaji Tunde Azeez and Akinola Abiodun emerged as the chairmanship candidates, respectively.
While addressing the press, the spokesperson for the PCC, Adetunji Akinyemi, flanked by the group’s chairman, Sabitu Kamorudeen, and several others, said they “reject the results being circulated from the APC’s local government primaries held on Saturday, May 10, 2025.”
“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.”
They 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.
In a reaction, a pro-Obasa APC group in Agege faulted the imposition claim.
Regarding themselves as the leaders of the APC in Agege and Orile-Agege, they pushed back at the claims that chairmanship and councillorship candidates in the areas were imposed.
They made this known in a communique issued on Tuesday, signed by Obasa, the lawmaker representing Agege II in the state House of Assembly, Alhaji Jubril Kareem, House of Representatives member, Dr. Wale Ahmed, Special Adviser to the Governor, Afolabi Tajudeen, the Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, APC Apex Leader, Alhaji Safari Adaranijo, and First Executive Chairman Agege LGA, Alhaji Owolabi Dada.
Others are the Chairman, Agege LGA, Chief Ganiu Egunjobi, and Chairman, Orile-Agege LCDA, Johnson Babatunde, among others.
“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,” the communique added.
Meanwhile, protests also rocked the Somolu, Third Mainland Bridge, and Ikeja areas of Lagos on Tuesday as APC members dissatisfied with the results of the primaries continue to voice their opposition.(Punch)
