Omosede Igbinedion, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Ovia federal constituency, has won Saturday’s by-election in Edo state.
Clement Ighodalo, returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the election, declared Igbinedion as the winner on Sunday.
Ighodalo announced that Igbinedion 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.
In 2015, Igbinedion was elected into the green chamber to represent Ovia federal constituency on the platform of the PDP.
She lost the seat to Idahosa in the 2019 and 2023 elections under the PDP. She joined the APC in 2024.
She is the daughter of Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin.
