Despite nationwide protest, the Senate, yesterday, commenced screening of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide, Lauretta Onochie, as national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Onochie, who is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) arrived the Senate wing of the National Assembly about 11am, accompanied by the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Babajide Omoworare.
The Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, claimed that she was not partisan: “Well, not anymore.”
Onochie who said she is out of politics, described herself as “madam due process.” The controversial aide who has been repeatedly accused by Nigerians of insulting those who express divergent views on social media, made a stop over at the office of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Kabri Gaya.
Last week, leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led a protest to the National Assembly, urging Ahmad Lawan-led Senate not to confirm her claiming she would pose a serious danger to the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
Onochie was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2020 as an INEC commissioner to represent Delta State.
Lawan, had on June 9, directed the Senate’s INEC committee to screen Onochie and four other nominees.
On the agenda, Onochie was listed at the last nominee to be screened. And when it was her turn, almost all the panel members questioned her intergrity and partisanship.
The lawmakers referred to petitions and documents that show she is partisan. These included an affidavit she signed affirming her membership of the APC.
In her response, she said: “I have seen the petitions against me but I stand for justice and fairness. Thus, nobody has anything to fear. I am madam due process and this is the reason behind my attacks, because I follow the law and due process. I have no partisanship bone in my body until I was invited to come and work with President Muhammadu Buhari.”
A member of the panel, Seriake Dickson said Onochie’s appointment would be less problematic if she was nominated to be in the president’s cabinet. He also said INEC already had a National Commissioner from Delta State where Ms Onochie hails. He asked her to justify why she should be confirmed.
She replied: “Since Buhari was elected as president for the second term, I have removed myself from everything politics. Since 2019, I don’t have anything to do with politics. As I am sitting down here, I am not a member of any political party in this country.”
Regardless, PDP, yesterday, insisted that the presidential aide is a member of the APC. In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, it said Onochie is number two on the register of APC in ward 4 in Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta state. It accused her of denying her membership of the ruling party because of desperation to be appointed as a national commissioner in INEC.
“Lauretta Onochie in her escapade in the Senate, may have forgotten that the lawmakers and Nigerians in general are aware of her subsisting oath filed in a pending suit in court affirming her membership of the APC, which she further reinforced and adopted under cross examination in the same matter very recently.
