The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Epe Division is heading into the 2027 general election with renewed optimism after significant progress in reconciliation efforts by the party leadership in recent weeks; efforts designed to heal the internal wounds opened by a bruising season of primaries in May 2026.
Epe APC had, by most accounts, not seen primaries quite like those of May 2026.
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Across both the federal and state constituencies, the contests were fiercely fought, drawing out more candidates and more voter participation than the division had witnessed in recent electoral memory. The House of Representatives primary was particularly intense.
Three aspirants — Akogun Wale Raji Anomo, the Executive Chairman of Ikosi-Ejinrin Local Council Development Area; Barrister Saidat Olayinka Oladunjoye, a lawyer and former Lagos State Commissioner; and Bakare Isiaka Adeyinka, popularly known as Eruobodo — mounted credible challenges against three-term incumbent Rep. Wale Raji, each running on the argument that it was time for the lawmaker to pass the torch.
Raji, however, was not moved. The incumbent, who chairs the House Committee on Livestock Development and was ranked second among all 24 Lagos members of the House of Representatives in an April performance assessment, made the case that the constituency stood to gain more from retaining a ranking member than starting afresh with a new face.
On primary day, the voters agreed. Raji polled 18,460 votes, winning 15 of the constituency’s 19 wards in a direct primary; the combined votes of all three opponents did not match his total. It was a landslide by any measure, but the margin did not fully extinguish the grievances of those who had campaigned hard and come away empty-handed.
From Division to Dialogue
In the weeks that followed, there were quiet fears within the party that the ambitions left unrealised by the primaries could fracture Epe’s APC heading into a general election year. Epe Division has long been a stronghold for the party, and any significant internal disaffection risked handing opposition parties an opening they would not otherwise have.
Those fears now appear to be receding. On August 15, the APC Lagos East Senatorial District Reconciliation Committee, led by Babatunde Ogala, SAN, OFR — a former National Legal Adviser of the party — paid a visit to Epe as part of a broader effort to resolve post-primary grievances and close ranks ahead of 2027. What the committee found was, by its own assessment, encouraging.
“If I’m to score Epe, I’ll score them 95%,” Ogala told the gathering of stakeholders, aspirants, ward and zonal leaders, and party faithful. “On the reconciliation process, we’re almost there. What we just need to do is to work on some minor cracks and smoothen up.”
He added that Epe had promised to deliver over 80 per cent of votes in 2027, a commitment he welcomed as evidence that the local structure understood the stakes.
Ogala also offered a broader perspective on the costs of disunity, recalling the 2023 elections when the APC came closer to losing Lagos than the party had anticipated.
“By the time Lagos lost, I think it dawned on all of us that our heritage was going,” he warned, urging Epe to treat anything below 70 per cent of the vote as failure.
Raji and Tobun Close Ranks
Both Raji and the APC’s Lagos State House of Assembly candidate for the division, Hon. Abiodun Tobun, used the reconciliation meeting to signal their commitment to an inclusive post-primary process.
Raji acknowledged the legitimacy of his opponents’ ambitions and made the party’s expectation of him clear.
“If we don’t make efforts to ensure genuine reconciliation, we will be disappointing the party,” he said. “And I assure you that we will not disappoint the party.”
Tobun, for his part, struck a tone of humility, insisting that victory had not made him complacent.
“We are only fortunate, it’s not as if we’re the best,” he said. “The victory is not to spite or shame fellow aspirants.”
The lawmaker disclosed that private reconciliation meetings were already underway with some of the aspirants who contested against him, and set a clear target for the party. “We’ve been winning in Epe but we need to win more,” he said.
FURTHER READING
With the reconciliation committee set to submit a largely positive report, the clearest signal from Epe is one of a party that has looked into the abyss of post-primary division and stepped back. Whether that momentum holds through to polling day in January 2027 will be the real test, but for now, Epe’s APC appears to be moving in one direction.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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