APC Primary: Ogbeide-Ihama defeats Imasuen, Ize-Iyamu to emerge senatorial candidate

The senator representing Edo South senatorial district at the National Assembly, Neda Imasuen, has lost his bid to return to the red chamber in 2027.

DAILY POST reports that Imasuen was defeated on Monday, May 18, 2026 by Omorogie Ogbeide-Ihama to emerge the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate for the Senatorial district.

Neda Imasuen, who was elected on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, later defected to the APC on June 25, 2025.

At the Primary elections conducted on Monday, May 18, 2026, Ogbeide-Ihama polled a total of  27,154 votes to defeat his closest rival, Senator Neda Imasuen, who scored 13,580 while Pastor Osagie Ize- Iyamu got 6,785 votes.

Mohammed Kabiru Ajana, the chairman of the committee, gave the figures shortly after the collation of the results of the primary elections across the 77 wards in the seven local governments that make up the senatorial district.

Ajana announced after all the local governments’ returning officers gave scores to each candidate at the primary.

He, however, declined to declare Ogbeide-Ihama the winner of the election.

The breakdown of the results showed that Ogbeide-Ihama won in all seven local governments.

In the Oredo local government, Ogbeide-Ihama scored 3,950 votes, Neda Imasuen, 1,974 votes and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu got 986 votes.

In Egor, Ihama polled 4,226 votes, Neda Imasuen 2,114 votes while Ize-Iyamu scored 1,056 votes.

The results from Orhionmwon’s local government showed that Ogbeide-Ihama clinched 3,058 votes, Imasuen polled 1,529 votes, and Ize-Iyamu scored 765 votes.

In Ovia South-West Local Government, Ogbeide- Ihama got 4,263 votes, Imasuen 2,131 votes while Ize-Iyamu scored 1,060 votes.

The returning committee officer from Ikpoba Okha local government, Ogbeide-Ihama garnered 5,517 votes, Neda Imasuen 2, 759 votes and Ize-Iyamu 1,378 votes.

Similarly, in Uhunmwonde local government, Ogbeide-Ihama scored 2,626 votes, Neda Imasuen 1,314 votes and Ize-Iyamu 657 votes.

In Ovia North-East Local Government, Ihama polled a total of 3, 514 votes, Neda Imasuen 1,759 votes, while Ize-Iyamu got 878 votes.

DAILY POST gathered that Ogbeide-Ihama, the former member of the National Assembly who represented Oredo Federal Constituency from 2015 to 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, during the 2024 governorship election in Edo State.

He was also reported to have been sponsored by Nyesom Wike, the former governor of Rivers State and the current minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

APC Primary: Ogbeide-Ihama defeats Imasuen, Ize-Iyamu to emerge senatorial candidate