The All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders from Agege and Orile-Agege chapters in Lagos have strongly denied claims that their chairmanship and councillorship candidates for the upcoming July 12, 2025 local government elections were imposed on party members.
Okay.ng earlier reported that the party conducted its primaries for all 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas on May 10, 2025, at the Lagos State APC secretariat. While the election committee, led by Babatunde Ogala, announced the chairmanship candidates for nearly all councils, controversies have erupted over alleged impositions and claims of flawed processes favoring certain aspirants.
Agege and Orile-Agege, where Alhaji Tunde Azeez and Idowu Akinola emerged as chairmanship candidates respectively, have been focal points of these allegations. However, following a meeting at the Agege Local Government Secretariat, party leaders issued a communiqué rejecting the imposition claims.
The statement, signed by prominent figures including Lagos State House Speaker Mudashir Obasa, APC Apex Leader Alhaji Safari Adaranijo, and Executive Chairmen Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi (Agege) and Pastor Babatunde Johnson (Orile-Agege), asserted that those disputing the process had long abandoned the party and their communities.
They highlighted that some critics, such as Kayode Opeifa, Dr. Samuel Adejare, and Oluyinka Ogundimu, have not been resident or active in the party or communities for years. Similarly, aspirants like Biodun Ogunji and Bukola Sofidiya, based abroad, only recently returned to pursue candidacy.
The communiqué emphasized that the primaries were conducted through delegate voting and consensus among local government executives, with exco members formed four years ago, long before the dissenters distanced themselves.
The leaders concluded by dismissing the claims as misleading and attributed them to sore losers disconnected from the party’s grassroots.
