Former chairman of Agege Local Government, Ganiyu Egunjobi and Azeez Yusuf, a former aspirant for the Lagos State House of Assembly, have rejected their expulsion from the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that they had already resigned from the party before the disciplinary action was announced.

The duo, who are now candidates of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) for Agege Constituencies I and II respectively, said their decision to leave the APC was taken in July 2026 and was not prompted by the expulsion announced by the Lagos State chapter of the party on Wednesday.

The Lagos APC had announced the expulsion of Egunjobi and Yusuf over alleged anti-party activities and disloyalty, 

The party accused them of abandoning the APC after failing to secure its tickets during the House of Assembly primaries and subsequently obtaining nominations from the APM to contest the same constituencies.

Egunjobi contested the APC primary for Agege Constituency I, while Yusuf sought the party’s ticket for Agege Constituency II.

The APC later recognised Gbenga Abiola as its candidate for Agege Constituency I and Sakiru Enimakure for Constituency II.

The development followed a controversial primary process in which Egunjobi and Yusuf disputed the results announced by the party.

The two politicians had maintained that they won their respective primary elections and had challenged the outcome through internal party channels.

The Lagos APC, however, said their decision to obtain tickets from another party amounted to a breach of their obligations as APC members.

State APC Chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, said the party acted under Article 9(5)(II) of the APC Constitution, as amended in 2022.

He maintained that members who lose internal contests are expected to accept the outcome or pursue recognised avenues of redress instead of seeking another party’s platform during the same electoral cycle.

But Egunjobi and Yusuf have now challenged the basis of the expulsion, saying they were no longer APC members when the party announced the disciplinary action.

In a joint statement, they said their resignation took place several weeks before the September 23 announcement.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we resigned from the APC in July 2026 — weeks before the Party announced our purported expulsion on September 23,” they said.

The former APC members said they had communicated their decision to the relevant people within the party before moving to the APM.

They also said their movement had already been publicly reported before the APC announced their expulsion.

“We had already made our decision, communicated our position, and moved on politically. We subsequently joined the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and our resignation and defection were publicly reported by several newspapers,” they said.

The duo questioned the timing of the APC’s action.

“The question, therefore, is simple: How can a Party expel people who had already resigned from its membership?” they asked.

Their position directly challenges the account given by the Lagos APC, which described their reported resignation as a belated attempt to avoid disciplinary action.

The dispute stems from the APC primary elections held as part of preparations for the 2027 Lagos State House of Assembly election.

Egunjobi and Yusuf have consistently disputed the results of the exercises. They said they recorded victories at the venues but were later denied the party’s tickets.

According to them, they did not immediately leave the APC after the primaries.

Instead, they said they filed petitions and made several representations in an attempt to resolve the disagreement internally.

“Unfortunately, our concerns were not meaningfully addressed,” they said.

“There was no genuine engagement, no satisfactory resolution and no meaningful effort to restore confidence in the process.”

They said their eventual decision to leave the APC followed the failure of those efforts.

The two politicians also rejected the suggestion that their movement to the APM was an attempt to undermine their political associates or was directed by Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mudasiru Obasa.

Obasa had earlier endorsed Egunjobi and Yusuf during a stakeholders’ meeting in Agege where he declared his intention to seek the APC ticket for the Agege Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives.

When they announced their defection to the APM earlier in September, the two politicians had also denied that Obasa was responsible for their decision.

They have now reiterated their loyalty to several political figures despite leaving the APC.

“We remain firmly committed to the candidacies of our principal, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; dr Obafemi Hamzat; Senator Idiat Adebule; and Rt. Hon. Mudasiru Obasa,” they said.

The statement further said they were still working for the Tinubu/Hamzat political project in Agege.

They also appealed to their supporters not to be distracted by what’s happening between them and the APC leadership.

“Our message is simple: we resigned, we moved on, and we remain focused on the political future ahead,” they said.