NIGERIA’S 10th Senate has recorded its fourth death since inauguration, following the passing of Barinada Mpigi, who represented Rivers South-East Senatorial District.
Mpigi died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 64 after a prolonged illness, according to a confirmation announced during a Senate committee session by Ogoshi Onawo, who represents Nasarawa South.
Onawo disclosed the development while presiding over proceedings that included the appearance of Hannatu Musawa, Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, who was present to defend her ministry’s 2025 budget proposal.
A string of losses in the 10th Senate
Mpigi’s death adds to a list of lawmakers lost in the current Red Chamber.
In July 2024, Ifeanyi Ubah died in London at 52. The businessman-turned-politician founded Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Ubah FC and the Ifeanyi Ubah Foundation, and was elected to the Senate in 2019 on the platform of the young progressive party before later defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He represented Anambra South.
The Senate again went into mourning in November 2025 with the death of Okey Ezea, followed in December 2025 by Godiya Akwashiki, marking the third loss within months before Mpigi’s passing.
The ICIR reported that the House of Representatives lost three of its All Progressives Congress (APC) members since its inauguration in June 2023.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also lost its member-elect, Isma’ila Maihanchi. He was to represent the Jalingo/Yorro/Zing Federal Constituency in Taraba State.
He died shortly after the 2023 polls and before the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly.
He was aged 36 and died after a brief illness.
Senate continues to mourn
Earlier, on February 3, Senate President Godswill Akpabio had lamented the repeated deaths within the chamber, describing the past two years as particularly painful for lawmakers.
Speaking at a tribute night for the late Ezea held at the National Ecumenical Centre, Akpabio said the Senate had lost colleagues in quick succession, adding that each death served as a reminder of inevitability of death and the need for improved public service.
He urged politicians not to lose their humanity, stressing that what ultimately endures is compassion and the good done for others, not power or position.
Tributes also came from Nenadi Usman, who described Ezea as a principled politician loyal to the Labour Party until his death, and from former presidential candidate Peter Obi, who encouraged family and colleagues to take solace in the legacy he left behind.
Mpigi’s legislative career
Born on June 23, 1961, Mpigi spent more than a decade in Nigeria’s National Assembly.
He was first elected in 2011 to represent the Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and got re-elected in 2016.
He later won election to the Senate in 2019 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, serving in both the 9th and 10th Senates. During the Ninth Assembly, he chaired a joint committee investigating crude-oil theft in the Niger Delta.
Until his death, he served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, supervising federal road and infrastructure oversight nationwide.
He hailed from Tai Local Government Area in Rivers State’s Ogoni region and was widely regarded as a grassroots political mobiliser.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M