Omosede Igbinedion, one of the daughters of the Esama of Benin kingdom, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion emerged victorious in last week's by-election polls i
Omosede Igbinedion, one of the daughters of the Esama of Benin kingdom, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion emerged victorious in last week’s by-election polls in Edo State. Omosede who contested on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, won her constituency’s mandate in Ovia federal constituency to represent them at the House of Representatives.
Omosede scored 77,053 votes to defeat her closest challenger, Johnny Aikpitanyi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 3,838 votes.
The Ovia federal constituency seat was previously occupied by Dennis Idahosa, the incumbent deputy governor of the state. The seat was vacant after Idahosa was elected as the deputy governor at the September 2024 Edo governorship election. He took his oath of office in November 2024. In December 2024, Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, declared Idahosa’s seat vacant at the lower chamber.
This isn’t Omosede’s first rodeo as a politician.
In 2015, she was elected into the green chamber to represent Ovia federal constituency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. She lost the seat to Idahosa in the 2019. Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, she approached the Election Petition Tribunal in Benin alleging that Idahosa was not qualified to contest the election being a Canadian citizen and that he did not resign his appointment with the Federal Ministry of Environment as a member of the National Agency for Great Greenwall board. She added in her petition that there were over-voting, forgery and falsification of results. Her petition was thrown out for lack of proof.
In 2023, she contested again on the platform of PDP but lost again to Idahosa.
