The Executive Chairman of Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, Ganiyu Egunjobi, has thrown his weight behind the emergence of Lagos Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa’s son as the All Progressives Congress vice chairmanship candidate for the upcoming council polls.
Egunjobi, in an interview with selected journalists, addressed the mounting controversy that followed the May 10 APC primaries, dismissing claims of imposition and defending the legitimacy of the process that produced candidates across local government areas.
“I think the reactions in those quarters where they are shouting ‘imposition’ is in the character of politicians in our clime,” Vanguard quoted him as saying on Friday.
“I’m sure if the results had gone their way, they would be lavishing praise on the electoral process. The election committee put up a good show and should be commended, same with the leadership of the party in the state.”
Tensions had risen after a protest in Agege and Orile-Agege by some APC members who accused Speaker Obasa of planting loyalists and family members, including his son (Abdulganiyu), as flagbearers in the upcoming July 12 council elections.
But Egunjobi dismissed the demonstration as a charade sponsored by political desperadoes.
“I watched the video of the so-called protest and I was amazed to see those who led it. A political neophyte, who is a charge-and-bail lawyer, anchored it.
“For your information, this man until recently was gushing about the Speaker, thinking singing the praise of Obasa would get him the party chairmanship ticket for Orile-Agege,” he said.
He added that some of the aggrieved aspirants, including Sola Osolana and Bukola Sofidiya, only returned to the party shortly before the primaries and lacked the moral and constitutional right to contest.
“We know some of their paymasters in the persons of a certain serving senator from Ogun State and a three-time House of Assembly member in our area, to mention but a few,” he hinted, without naming names.
Addressing the controversy over the candidacy of Obasa’s son, who is reportedly running as a vice-chairmanship candidate in Agege, Egunjobi defended the Speaker’s son as eminently qualified, drawing comparisons to political dynasties in the United States and Nigeria.
Obasa’s son, Abdulganiyu
“This is someone that is well-read, a PhD student for that matter, who has been touching lives in Agege long before now. In fact, he deserves to succeed me.
“People blabbing ‘imposition’ in respect of the Speaker’s son’s matter are not fair to the young man and Agege,” he declared.
Highlighting his own tenure, which ends in about two months, Egunjobi reeled out achievements including the construction of roads, health centres, public school infrastructure, vocational training, youth empowerment programmes, and local job creation.
“We built a CBT centre for JAMB candidates, upgraded our vocational training institute, and even created a deradicalisation programme for louts post-EndSARS,” he said.
“Over 700 staff, including security personnel under ‘Paramole’, are on our payroll, receiving stipends to maintain peace and order.”
When asked about the perennial Awori versus non-indigene divide in Agege politics, the chairman responded with a rebuke of identity politics.
“We are all born and bred in Agege. Come to think of it, no Awori person in Agege is more Agege than me. The dichotomy doesn’t hold water and is inconsequential,” he concluded.
