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We resigned in July, party can’t expel ex-members
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A fresh political battle has erupted in Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, following the expulsion of two former All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants, Chief Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi and Mr Azeez Yusuf, by the Lagos State chapter of the party.
While the APC accused the duo of anti-party activities and disloyalty after they allegedly defected to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) following their failure to secure the party’s tickets for the 2026 Lagos State House of Assembly election, Egunjobi and Yusuf fired back, declaring that they had already resigned from the APC in July.
The two former APC members described the expulsion announced yesterday as “belated” and politically unnecessary, insisting that the party could not expel them after they had voluntarily quit its membership weeks earlier.
The controversy has deepened the political wrangling surrounding the Agege constituencies ahead of the forthcoming elections.
Egunjobi and Yusuf had contested the APC nomination process for Agege Constituency I and II respectively.
But the Lagos APC, in a statement yesterday, accused them of refusing to accept the outcome of the party’s internal process and subsequently obtaining tickets from another political party.
The party said their conduct amounted to anti-party activity and a breach of the obligations expected of its members.
According to the APC, members who lose internal contests are expected to accept the outcome or pursue legitimate avenues of redress provided by the party and the law, rather than seek another platform within the same electoral cycle.
The party said it invoked Article 9(5)(II) of the APC Constitution, as amended in 2022, to expel the duo.
It also dismissed their purported resignations as a “belated and face-saving attempt” to avoid the consequences of their actions.
The Lagos APC warned that Egunjobi and Yusuf were no longer members of the party and had no authority to represent, negotiate or transact any business on behalf of the APC.
But the duo rejected the party’s account, saying the expulsion could not alter the fact that they had left the APC months earlier.
“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.
They disclosed that they subsequently joined the APM, adding that their resignation and defection had already been publicly reported.
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The former aspirants also challenged the APC’s account of the primary election, claiming that they won their respective constituency primaries but were subsequently denied the tickets.
They said they had petitioned the party leadership, made representations and held press conferences in an effort to resolve the matter internally.
According to them, the failure to secure a satisfactory resolution eventually forced them to leave the APC.
They described the September 23 expulsion as an attempt to rewrite events that had already taken place.
“It is therefore difficult to see the September 23 announcement as anything other than an attempt to rewrite a political history that had already moved on,” they said.
The two politicians also rejected the argument that their defection amounted to betrayal, maintaining that politicians regularly move between political parties in Nigeria.
They cited the political journeys of several politicians who had previously crossed party lines before returning to the APC or working with its candidates.
Egunjobi and Yusuf consequently accused the APC of applying a double standard to political defections.
They insisted that their decision to leave the APC was based on their grievances over the nomination process and was not an attack on the party or its political leaders.
In a development that could further complicate the political equation in Agege, the duo declared continued support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, Senator Idiat Adebule and Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Mudasiru Obasa.
They said they were also working for the success of the Tinubu/Hamzat political project in Agege despite their defection to the APM.
“We left a party; we did not abandon our principles, our relationships or the people we believe in,” they said.
The duo urged their supporters to remain calm, disciplined and focused, insisting that their political journey would continue under the APM platform.
The latest development has now set the stage for a fresh political confrontation in Agege, with the APC insisting that party discipline must prevail, while Egunjobi and Yusuf maintain that they had already exercised their right to leave the party before the expulsion was announced.
