The expulsion of Barrister Azeez Oladapo Yusuf, popularly known as Ninolowo, from the All Progressives Congress has taken a new turn after lawyer and public analyst Barrister Damian Ajayi weighed in on the matter during an interview on Arise TV.
Ajayi focused on the long-running dispute between Ninolowo and former Agege Local Government Chairman Chief Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi. At the centre of the argument is whether the two men were fully fledged APC candidates or merely aspirants during the party’s nomination process for Agege Constituency II.
According to Ninolowo and his supporters, he emerged from the APC primary only for the party to later substitute his name with that of another aspirant. That decision, they say, forced him to resign from the APC in July 2026 and continue his political ambition under the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). The APC has insisted that both men remained aspirants, not candidates, throughout the process.
The sharper constitutional question now dominating discussion is whether the Lagos State chapter of the APC had the authority to expel Ninolowo weeks after he claims to have resigned.
Ninolowo maintains that his resignation letter was submitted in July, well before the party publicly announced his expulsion in September. Critics argue that a person who has already ceased to be a member cannot be expelled as though he still belonged to the party. They also question whether the State Executive Committee acted within the powers reserved for it under the APC Constitution, particularly provisions that require certain disciplinary matters involving executives or office-holders to be referred to the National Executive Committee.
Ajayi’s television intervention has shifted attention from the usual “anti-party activity” label to more fundamental issues: the exact date the resignation took effect, whether the party acknowledged it, when any disciplinary process actually began, which organ initiated it, and which constitutional clause authorised the final expulsion.
The APC Constitution contains detailed rules on discipline, fair hearing, resignation and the hierarchy of party organs. Until the party produces documentary evidence addressing these points, the controversy cannot be reduced to a simple case of defection.
For now, the Ninolowo episode remains a complex mix of disputed nomination, alleged substitution, resignation, membership status and questions of constitutional authority within the APC.