Two Nigerians, Agbaje, Oye win in U.S. election

Two Nigerian-Americans have won their respective positions in the ongoing United States general elections. Nine Nigerian-Americans had vied for different positions in the election, with two already declared winners.

At the federal level, Oye Owolewa, whose father is from Kwara State and mother from Oyo State, has been elected as a shadow (non-voting) Representative out of the District of Columbia. The 30-year-old is the first Nigerian congressman in the country’s history.

This was disclosed by ABC 7 News via its Twitter handle yesterday. It tweeted, “Democrat Oye Owolewa will be elected as a shadow U.S. Representative out of the District of Columbia.”

Oye had 82.65% of the votes, which represents 135,234 votes against Joyce Robinson-Paul, who had 15,541 votes, and Sohaer Syed with 12,846 votes.

Also, Esther Agbaje won her election into the Minnesota House of Representatives. The 35-year-old woman, who contested on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer-Labour Party (DFL), pulled a total of 17,396 votes, which represents 74.7% of the total ballots cast, defeating her closets opponent Alan Shilepsky. Shilepsky garnered 4,126 votes, which represents 17.7% of the total votes cast.

Agbaje will represent District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of DFL, an affiliate of the Democratic Party. Esther is presently an attorney in Minneapolis. She had served as a foreign affairs officer with the US Department of State.