No fewer than seven Nigerians have been re-elected into the United
Kingdom parliament in an election held on Thursday. The MPs comprised of
five females and two males.
According to
reports, the parliament members include Kemi Badenoch representing
Saffron Walden; Chuka Umunna representing Streatham; Kate Osamor
representing Edmonton; Bim Afolami representing Hitchin and Harpenden;
Fiona Onasanya representing Peterborough; Helen Grant representing
Maidstone and The Weald and Chi Onwurah representing Newcastle.
According
to UK Telegraph, Onwurah, who contested under the Labour Party, won
24,071 votes to defeat Tory candidate, Steve Kyte, who had 9, 134 votes.
Similarly, Umunna, 38, of the Labour Party, won the election to
represent Streatham which she had represented since 2008.
Onwurah,
52, is said to be Newcastle’s first member of parliament, Osamor, 48,
was also elected on the platform of LP, while Badenoch, 38, was elected
on the platform of the Conservative Party.
Also, Onasanya, who
ran on the platform of the Labour Party, was the deputy leader of the
Labour Group on Cambridgeshire until her re-election, while Grant, 55,
who represents Maidstone and The Weald since 2010, was said to be the
first black member of parliament from Conservatives.
In the same
vein, Afolami, who is of the Conservative Party won re-election, and she
was quoted to have said, “I’m feeling completely over the moon to be
the new MP for Hitchin and Harpenden. It’s such a great feeling. I’m
completely honoured. I would like to pay tribute to my opponents who
fought a fair and democratic fight.”
The Prime Minister, Theresa
May, suffered a major setback in the tumultuous election, losing her
overall majority in Parliament and throwing her government into
uncertainty less than two weeks before it is scheduled to begin
negotiations over withdrawing from the European Union.
May, the
Conservative leader, called the snap election three years early,
expecting to cruise to a smashing victory that would win her a mandate
to see Britain through the long and difficult negotiations with European
leaders over the terms of leaving the union.