Nollywood actor-turned-lawmaker Desmond Elliot knelt and prostrated before Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, begging for forgiveness after losing the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to contest the Surulere Constituency I seat in the Lagos State House of Assembly.
In a video obtained by SaharaReporters, Elliot is seen kneeling and later prostrating before Gbajabiamila, expressing regret over his conduct during the APC’s Surulere primary.
He addressed Gbajabiamila as “Daddy” and said he had been misguided during the contest, accepting the outcome of the primary and pledging renewed loyalty to the leadership of Lagos State’s Governance Advisory Council (GAC).
“Sorry, I have no excuse, I have no… nothing. Other than to say I’m deeply sorry sir. In the culture, we prostrate. E ma binu, Daddy. E ma binu sir (Please, don’t be annoyed, Daddy. Please, don’t be annoyed, sir),” Elliot pleaded.
Gbajabiamila, seated throughout the encounter, urged Elliot to get up, telling him there was no need to remain on the ground.
Elliot, who has represented Surulere Constituency I since his election under the APC, built his political career in close alignment with Gbajabiamila, who represented the same constituency in the House of Representatives before rising to Speaker of the House and, later, Chief of Staff to Tinubu.
The reconciliation follows a bitter split between Elliot and party leadership after May’s APC primary.
Elliot withdrew from the process midway, alleging intimidation and political pressure against his supporters, then rejected the result and said he would challenge it through the party’s internal appeal mechanism.
He went on to lose the ticket to Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, widely believed to have Gbajabiamila’s backing, who polled 11,385 votes against Elliot’s 270.
The falling-out traces back further than the primary itself. In May, Gbajabiamila said Elliot’s alleged involvement in the failed attempt to impeach Lagos Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa had nearly cost him his job as Chief of Staff.
According to Gbajabiamila, Tinubu confronted him directly, asking whether Elliot, a politician Gbajabiamila had heavily mentored, was his “boy,” and citing intelligence reports tying Elliot to the faction pushing Obasa’s removal.
Gbajabiamila said he initially defended Elliot, but Tinubu held to the intelligence assessment. Three days later, Gbajabiamila said, the Director-General of the Department of State Services warned him that his own name was being floated as the impeachment plot’s hidden sponsor, given his closeness to Elliot.
Gbajabiamila disclosed these details publicly at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos, a moment that effectively ended his support for Elliot’s political ambitions.
Elliot’s prostration before Gbajabiamila now reads as an attempt to repair that breach and reaffirm his standing with the APC leadership in Lagos, following a primary loss that closed out his bid for a further term in the Assembly.
