The leadership of All Progressives Congress in Agege and Orile-Agege area of Lagos State has reaffirmed that High Chief Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi and Barrister Azeez Oladapo Ninalowo won the party’s primaries for Agege constituency 01 and Agege Constituency 02 respectively.

Egunjobi is the immediate past Chairman of Agege Local Government, and on Wednesday was declared winner of APC primary for Agege constituency 01 in the poll held on Wednesday, and monitored by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC.

Held across the five wards in the constituency the ex-council boss scored 9,132 votes, while his former deputy, the recent past Vice-Chairman of the council, Gbenga Michael Abiola came a distant third.

Speaking on Thursday at a meeting of stakeholders comprising the three traditional rulers in the area, Baales, and other community leaders including the leadership of traders and artisans’ unions, APC chieftain, (𝗔𝗹𝗵) 𝗔𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗷𝗼 commended aspirants and the party faithful for conducting themselves peacefully during the ongoing primaries of the party.

Adaranijo who stated that the meeting agenda was to review the outcomes of the party’s primaries in the area so far, however, singled out Abiola for chastisement.

Contrary to electoral officers’ pronouncement of Egunjobi as Agege Constituency 01, unofficial claim has it that the ex-Council Vice-Chairman won the poll.

Reacting to the report, the elder statesman dismissed the speculation, saying it was misleading.

“As you can see, we just rose from our meeting which was to discuss the outcome of our primaries so far. We thank God, it has been free of violence and met our expectations as leaders.

“However, we have been taken aback by beer parlour and hair salon gossip in which some clowns in certain quarters are misrepresenting the fact of the outcome of Agege Constituency 01 poll which Agege former council Chairman, Egunjobi won in full view of INEC officials and other electoral officers who conducted the election.

“What remains the fact is that Egunjobi won hands down while the fiction in circulation claims Abiola is the winner,” Adaranijo told newsmen.

He added that the former Council vice chairman could not have won, saying he long alienated himself from the party activities and treated party faithful with austere civility and frozen politeness.

“How would someone who from the time his ambition to succeed Egunjobi as the council chairman was scuttled developed zero emotion for the party members and leaders, playing no part in its activities win the party’s primary. APC is too formidable to tolerate political truancy,” he said, alleging that the leader of the party in Agege, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa was Abiola’s benefactor.

“If not for the benevolence of Obasa, Abiola was nobody. The Speaker made him his Special Assistant, later Agege Council Sole Administrator, from where he became the Council SLG and subsequently the Vice-Chairman. It’s unfortunate that he’s now biting the finger that fed him at the prodding of some meddlesome interlopers,” Adaranijo said.

The Baale of Onipetesi/Ajakaye where Abiola comes from, Chief Yekini Ajakaye, that of Dopemu, Chief Shuaib Ajani Afogunlowo, and the Chief Imam of the area, Sheikh (Alh) Abdulgafar Sulaiman Elediye, also spoke in similar vein.

In his own remark on the sideline of the party governorship primary held on Thursday in the area at Agege Stadium, Obasa claimed that alleged dissidents within the All Progressives Congress, APC, were behind the controversial report, saying in a veiled reference to allegation that Abiola, the Managing Director of Nigeria Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa, Former federal lawmaker, Samuel Adejare and the incumbent lawmaker representing Agege Federal Constituency, Wale Ahmed, abandoned the party: “When you are a member of a party, you should always participate in all its activities. Why would anyone who isn’t here claim to be part of us?

“You can’t be absent from all primaries and still claim that you are with us. We have conducted House of Representatives, Senate, House of Assembly, and Governorship primaries, yet some disgruntled party members have consistently stayed away. It is not possible. They are not part of us.”