The All Progressives Congress (APC) has formally announced 64 candidates who emerged from its legislative primaries across Lagos State, setting its slate ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In a statement released Monday, Lagos APC Chairman Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi confirmed that 24 candidates secured House of Representatives tickets while 40 others clinched nominations for the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The primaries, conducted largely through a direct voting model across the state’s 245 wards, were not without friction. At least one aspirant called on President Bola Tinubu and party leadership to intervene, alleging that the outcome announced in his constituency did not reflect the wishes of APC members and accusing incumbent Speaker Mudashiru Obasa of exerting pressure on officials deployed to conduct the exercise.
The House of Representatives list reads largely as a roll call of familiar political insiders. Prominent names include James Abiodun Faleke for Ikeja, Mudashiru Obasa for Agege, and Babajimi Benson for Ikorodu.
Other winners include Muftau Egberongbe (Apapa), Moses Olanrewaju (Amuwo-Odofin), Adeyemi Alli (Mushin I), Fuad Atanda-Lawal (Eti-Osa), Dele Osinowo (Kosofe), Wale Raji (Epe), and Adekunle Omolaja (Lagos Mainland), among others.
The most glaring footnote, however, is one of absence. Of the 24 federal candidates, only Olabisi Adebanjo of Alimosho is a woman, a solitary figure in an otherwise all-male lineup that is certain to draw criticism from gender advocates.
The 40-candidate Assembly list features a wider mix of incumbents and fresh faces. Notable among them are Gbolahan Yishawu retaining Eti-Osa II, Oladipo Olayinka Ajomale for Oshodi-Isolo I, Mojisola Meranda for Apapa I, and Barakat Bakare-Odunuga for Surulere I. The list spans constituencies from Ikorodu to Somolu, Ojo, Ikeja, and Ajeromi-Ifelodun.
Ojelabi has framed the 2027 elections as an opportunity to reverse the damage done to the APC’s image in 2023, when the party suffered unexpected setbacks in Lagos, a state it has governed uninterrupted since 1999. With tickets now assigned, the party’s machinery is in motion.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The APC has locked in its 64 candidates for Lagos’s 2027 legislative battles, 24 for the House of Representatives and 40 for the State Assembly.
The list is dominated by familiar incumbents and party loyalists, raising little surprise but one glaring concern: of all 24 federal candidates, only one is a woman.
In a state as large and diverse as Lagos, that is a representation gap the party will have to answer for.
With internal disputes already surfacing over some results, the APC’s bigger challenge may not be facing the opposition in 2027 but convincing its own members that the process was fair.
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