The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hailed the rejection of the nomination of Lauretta Onochie, the Presidential Aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media as a National Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the Senate.
This is coming as the Senate on Today, July 13, 2021 unanimously rejected her nomination as Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in charge of South South.
The recommendation to stop her nomination was Read by Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano South), the Chairman Committee on INEC during the plenary on Tuesday. Gaya stated that the panel rejected Onochie’s nomination because it violated the federal capital principle.
According to him, Onochie was to replace Agbamuche Mbu who represents the region on the INEC board.
In Gaya’s report, “Onochie who is the Special Assistant on New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, did not satisfy the provisions of the Federal Character principles”
.However, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary said it was “a triumph of the will of Nigerians and a victory for democracy”
.The party also challenged the President to look for another credible Nigerian to fill the position, stressing that to re-present Onochie, is to introduce disaster because “she is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)”.
His word, “Her rejection by the Senate is the triumph of the will of Nigerians and a victory for our democracy. We hope that President Muhammadu Buhari will respect the will of Nigerians as represented by the National Assembly by not re-presenting her for confirmation”.
“We believe that in a country of over 200 million people, we can always find a competent Nigeria that is not partisan to be nominated into INEC as a national commissioner” he said.
It will be recalled that Senator Gaya at the plenary revealed that though Mbu is billed to retire in December, it was contrary to Section 14 (1,3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, to have two persons from the same state representing a region.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
