Manhattan Council race heats up with entrance of refugee turned migrant advocate

Edafe Okporo said he knew he had to leave his native Nigeria in 2016, as people were pounding on the door of his home in Abuja, threatening to kill him because of his sexual orientation.

“Open the door! We know you are gay and we are going to kill you!” he recalled in an interview. He said he was beaten in front of his neighbors and hospitalized for weeks.

Eight years later, the 34-year-old refugee is running for the New York City Council in 2025 — challenging incumbent Councilmember Shaun Abreu. He is expected to officially announce his bid Wednesday.

“I am the example of what New York stands for: that somebody can come here and create a life for themselves,” Okporo told Gothamist in an interview ahead of his announcement Wednesday

He faces an uphill battle. Abreu became the first Latino to represent District 7 in 2021 — a district that includes West Harlem and Washington Heights — beating out a dozen opponents. He ran unopposed during the last election in November, snagging 95% of the votes, according to the NYC Board of Elections. But Okporo's personal history and his work developing the first LGBTQ+ migrant shelter in New York City could make him a formidable challenger.

Abreu says he relishes the challenge of a contender in next year’s primary, compared to the humdrum of running a race unopposed.

“Y’know, last year I was kinda bored so this should be a good year," he said. “It’s an opportunity to speak to voters about my track record – it’s not one I run away from, it’s one that I lean into.”

Okporo said immigration will be a core issue for his campaign, fueled by his own experience.

He wrote in his memoir "Asylum" that when he left Nigeria, he hoped to arrive in a country where “the dignity of humanity is respected.” But when he arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport, Okporo said he was ushered in handcuffs to an ICE detention center in New Jersey for the next six months.

Upon his release, he said he found places to stay and various jobs to get on his feet. In 2018, Okporo said he persuaded a shelter housed in a Harlem church to become a full-time shelter just for asylum seekers and refugees. Okporo became the shelter’s director months before then-president Donald Trump would enact a pandemic-era measure that quelled the number of asylum-seekers entering the country. His actions garnered him a $200,000 local award, modeled after the MacArthur Genius Grant.

He’s critical of Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of the migrant crisis that’s been playing out in New York for two years.

“The mayor thinks that he has good intentions but he surrounds himself with people who do not have experience with migrant issues,” Okporo told Gothamist. “And that is the first step toward finding a solution.”

It’s not uncommon for advocates and grassroots organizers to eventually find themselves running for office in New York City. In fact, that’s the path Councilmember Abreu took.

A native of Washington Heights, Abreu is the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. His father was a janitor and his mother worked at Zabar’s, according to his bio. He was the first of his family to graduate college and then law school and went on to become a tenants’ rights attorney. Like Okporo, his focus on housing is born of his own experience: His family was evicted from their home when he was a child.

Okporo says the incumbent has not been aggressive enough on housing affordability, including residents’ concerns over development in the area. And he accused him of not being present enough in the district.

Abreu, who chairs the Sanitation and Solid Waste Management committee and co-chairs the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, said he’s not always in his office because he’s out doing the work expected of him as a councilmember.

“I’ve kept people in their homes, I’ve gotten trash off the streets, I’ve expanded access to mental health resources and secured eight figure investments in parts of the districts that have been ignored for decades," Abreu said.

Okporo said if he’s elected he’d want to join the Council’s land use committee, as well as the zoning committee. Abreu sits on both committees currently.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify comments by Councilmember Abreu.