Lagos State lawmaker Desmond Elliott has raised alarm over alleged intimidation, political victimisation, withdrawal of his security personnel, and planned violence ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Assembly primaries for Surulere Constituency I scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, 2026, even as the Director-General of his own campaign organisation publicly abandoned him and declared support for a rival aspirant.
In a viral video circulated on Sunday, the actor-turned-politician accused unnamed party leaders and local government officials of coercing party members to support a preferred aspirant, firing local government officials who backed him, and mobilising outsiders to disrupt the primary exercise painting a picture of a political environment where his fourth-term bid is under coordinated assault from powerful forces within his own party.
Elliott described the political atmosphere within the Surulere chapter of the APC as deeply hostile, alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation against his supporters.
“Intimidation, coercion, twisting and forcing people to follow their own candidate is what is existing today in Surulere,” Elliott said. “Telling them that they will not be beneficiaries of some empowerment that is coming some other time. Please, this is not done and should not be done.”
The lawmaker alleged that the Surulere local government leadership had openly taken sides long before the primaries, backing another aspirant and using institutional power to advance that candidate’s interests at his expense.
“It is bad enough that the LGA and the local government already took a side months ago. The local government already took a side to support a particular aspirant,” he stated.
Elliott made two specific and alarming allegations about the consequences being imposed on those who support him.
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First, he claimed that several local government officials had been removed from their positions because of their political alignment with him. “We’ve been intimidated so much so that a lot of people from the local government have been fired because they follow me,” Elliott alleged.
Second, he disclosed that his security personnel had been withdrawn under unclear circumstances just a day before the video was circulated, leaving him personally vulnerable.
“My security personnel were taken away from me yesterday for reasons best known to them. Now I am left alone to myself. What have I done?” the visibly distressed lawmaker queried.
The withdrawal of a sitting lawmaker’s security aides on the eve of a contested primary election is a particularly serious allegation, as it suggests either a deliberate attempt to expose him to physical danger or a signal from security agencies or those who control them that he no longer enjoys official protection.
Elliott further raised concerns over possible violence during the primaries, alleging that plans were underway to mobilise outsiders to disrupt the exercise.
“They are coming out to fight us. They want to bring people from outside and from within to cause mayhem and trouble,” he alleged, appealing for intervention from party leaders to ensure peaceful, transparent, and credible conduct of the primaries.
Despite the gravity of his claims, the lawmaker maintained that he would accept the outcome of the primaries if the process was free and fair. “By the grace of God, if I, Desmond Olusola Elliott, win, Alhamdulillah. If I lose, I will throw my support behind the winner. But please let it be under a free and fair election,” Elliott added.
He urged his supporters not to be intimidated, assuring them that adequate security would be provided during the exercise, and called on party chieftains to investigate the allegations.
In a development that further underscored the political isolation facing Elliott, the Director-General of the Desmond Elliott Campaign Organisation, Bless Koye, publicly announced his withdrawal of support for the lawmaker’s fourth-term bid.
Koye declared his support for Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, an APC aspirant for Surulere Constituency I in the Lagos State House of Assembly. “I’ll decamp from Desmond group to Barakat group,” Koye reportedly said while announcing his decision.
The defection of the head of his own campaign organisation to a rival aspirant is a particularly damaging blow for Elliott, as it suggests that even those closest to his political machinery have concluded that his candidacy may no longer be viable or that the pressure from the opposing camp has become too intense to resist.
Barakat Odunuga-Bakare is widely believed to be the female aspirant who enjoys the backing of figures linked to the political camp of Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila though neither Gbajabiamila nor his associates have publicly confirmed this.
The crisis engulfing Elliott’s re-election bid cannot be understood without reference to the explosive revelations made by Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila just days earlier.
In a video that went viral last week, Gbajabiamila disclosed that he nearly lost his position as Chief of Staff to President Tinubu because of his association with Elliott. He revealed that both President Tinubu and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) confronted him at the peak of the Lagos State House of Assembly crisis over intelligence reports linking Elliott to the impeachment of Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.
Gbajabiamila recounted that President Tinubu told him directly: “I hear this Desmond is your boy,” before instructing him to tell Elliott to “retrace his steps.” The Chief of Staff said the DSS Director-General also contacted him days later, stating that his name was “being mentioned all over the place” in connection with the Assembly crisis.
Elliott subsequently appeared on TVC’s Your View on Friday and tendered a public apology to Gbajabiamila, calling him “my daddy” and acknowledging that misunderstandings may have strained their relationship.
“To err is human, to forgive is divine. I’m sorry, my daddy, if I’ve offended you in any way,” Elliott said on national television.
The revelations made clear that Elliott is widely believed not to enjoy the support of either Gbajabiamila or President Tinubu — a politically devastating position for any APC lawmaker in Lagos. The subsequent allegations of intimidation, withdrawal of security, and coordinated opposition to his re-election appear to confirm that the political machinery in Surulere has been mobilised against his continued stay in the Lagos Assembly.
Elliott represents Surulere Constituency I, the same constituency that Gbajabiamila represented in the House of Representatives before becoming Chief of Staff. The overlap in their political constituencies means that Gbajabiamila wields enormous influence over the party structures in Surulere, and any aspirant who falls out of favour with the Chief of Staff faces an uphill battle for survival.
Some party stakeholders have urged Gbajabiamila not to support Elliott’s fourth-term ambition, arguing that the lawmaker’s prolonged stay in office was sustained largely by Gbajabiamila’s political influence. Reports have emerged that a female aspirant believed to be Odunuga-Bakare is being positioned ahead of the primaries with the backing of figures linked to the Chief of Staff’s political camp, triggering accusations of imposition and deepening divisions within the local APC structure.
Elliott, despite the mounting pressure, used the viral video to campaign not only for himself but also for other APC candidates, including Wasiu Eshilokun, Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu — a move that appeared designed to demonstrate his continued loyalty to the party hierarchy and the President, even as forces within the party work against his re-election.
The Surulere Constituency I APC primary is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, 2026. Elliott’s allegations of intimidation, security withdrawal, and planned violence have raised the stakes considerably. If the primary proceeds peacefully and Elliott accepts the outcome as he has pledged the matter may be resolved through the ballot. However, if the exercise is marred by violence, irregularities, or the kind of coercion Elliott has alleged, legal challenges and further political upheaval within the Surulere APC are virtually guaranteed.
The lawmaker’s political fate now rests on whether the primary will be conducted freely and fairly, or whether the powerful forces he has described will succeed in engineering his removal from a constituency he has represented for three consecutive terms.
Neither the Surulere local government leadership nor any APC official in Lagos has publicly responded to Elliott’s allegations as at the time of this report.
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