Nigeria’s First Female Senator, Franca Afegbua Dies at 81

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

The first female Senator in Nigeria, Sen. Franca Afegbua has been confirmed dead at the age of 81.
She was reported to have died in Benin City, in a private hospital after battling an undisclosed illness in the last few months.

Her death was confirmed by Kassim Afegbua, one of her younger nephews, a journalist who served as a Commissioner for information in Adams Oshiomhole administration in Edo State and currently a member of the Tinubu’s Presidential Campaign Council.

Kassim said her aunty died yesterday morning and that her body had deposited at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) mortuary.
The late Franca Afegbua who was born in 1942, was elected senator in 1983 on the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) where she represented the then Bendel North Senatorial District.

She served in the upper chamber of the National Assembly from October to December 1983, before the Buhari military coup brought the second republic to an end on December 31, 1983.