Oshiomole Adams Aliyu

Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole (born 4 April 1952) is a Nigerian politician who has served as the senator representing the Edo North senatorial district since 2023. He is a former national chairman of the All Progressive Congress.

He previously served as the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress from 1999 to 2007 and as governor of Edo State from 2008 to 2016. As APC national chairman, he was suspended from office by the Abuja Court of Appeal on 16 June 2020.

Oshiomhole was born on 4 April 1952 at Iyamho, near Auchi in Edo State. He was born Muslim but was led into Christianity by his late wife Clara, who died of cancer aged 54. He became a Catholic and his Christian name is Eric.

After his secondary education, he obtained a job with the Arewa Textiles Company, where he was elected union secretary. He became a full-time trade union organiser in 1975.

In May 2015, he married a young model, Lara Fortes. Oshiomhole decided to further his education and proceeded to Ruskin College at Oxford, United Kingdom, to study industrial relations, majoring in labour economics in 1975.

Furthermore, in 1989, he attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Plateau State, Nigeria, making him a Member of the National Institute (MNI).

In 1982, Oshiomhole was appointed general secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment, and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, a union with over 75,000 workers.

After democracy was restored in 1999, he became president of the Nigerian Labour Congress and was prominent as the leader of a campaign of industrial action against high oil prices in Nigeria. Early in the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, he negotiated a 25% wage increase for public sector workers.

He publicly supported Obasanjo and endorsed his candidacy when he was re-elected in 2003. The textile workers' union elected Oshiomhole for a second term as general secretary while he continued as president of the NLC. His relationship with Obasanjo turned sour due to neglect of local oil refineries, leading to reliance on imported gasoline and rising fuel prices.

Oshiomhole led strikes and demonstrations against the increase, faced arrests, tear gas, and temporary blockades. Obasanjo introduced legislation to make it harder for the NLC to strike. The NLC alleged that on 9 October 2004, Oshiomhole was abducted by State Security Services during a protest, but the Nigerian government said he submitted to voluntary custody.

He represented African workers for two terms on the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO), serving on the committee on freedom of association. He was also a member of the executive board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

In April 2007, Oshiomhole ran for governor of Edo State under the Action Congress Party (AC), with which his Labour Party had entered a strategic alliance. Oserheimen Osunbor of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was declared the winner, but the AC contested the election on irregularities.

On 20 March 2008, the Edo State election tribunal nullified Osunbor’s election and declared Oshiomhole the winner. On 11 November 2008, a federal appeal court upheld the ruling, declaring Oshiomole the governor of Edo State.

During the 2012 Edo State gubernatorial election, he was elected to a second term, winning in a landslide. His tenure ended on 12 November 2016.

On 23 June 2018, Oshiomhole emerged as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following a voice vote by delegates at the party’s national convention.

On 12 November 2019, Oshiomhole was suspended from the APC after 18 local government chairmen of the party in Edo passed a vote of no confidence. He was accused of trying to disintegrate the party in Edo State. A faction loyal to him declared his suspension null and void, suspending instead Governor Godwin Obaseki.

On 15 January 2020, Edo APC reaffirmed his suspension, stating he had no legal right to continue as APC national chairman. On 4 March 2020, a high court in Abuja ordered his suspension, making him no longer a party member. Armed security agents were deployed to prevent him from accessing the party’s secretariat.

On 5 March 2020, a federal high court in Kano vacated the Abuja court’s order, restoring him as APC national chairman. This created confusion between the FCT High Court and Federal High Court Kano, both of equal jurisdiction.

Oshiomole appealed against his suspension at the Abuja Court of Appeal, which affirmed his suspension on 16 June 2020.

On 28 May 2022, Oshiomhole won the APC primaries for the 2023 Edo North senatorial elections. On 26 February 2023, INEC declared him the winner of the 2023 senatorial election for Edo North, with 107,110 votes, defeating the incumbent Senator Francis Alimekhena of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He was named Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior of the 10th Senate, on 8 August 2023.

In June 2025, Oshiomhole was involved in a public dispute at Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos following a missed Air Peace flight to Abuja. The airline condemned his alleged unruly conduct, disrupting terminal access and causing delays.

In February 2026, Oshiomhole became the subject of social media attention after a video allegedly showing him massaging a woman’s feet aboard a private jet went viral. The woman was identified as Leshaan Dagama, a 19-year-old South African influencer, not his wife Lara Fortes. Dagama originally posted the video before deleting it.