Senate defies protests from civil society groups, begin screening of APC’s Lauretta Onochie for INEC

Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has defied protests from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, civil society groups, others and begun the screening of Lauretta Onochie as one of the National Commissioners of INEC.

Onochie is the Special Assistant on Social Media to President Muhammadu Buhari. The Senator Kabiru Gaya(APC, Kano South) led Committee has just begun the screening.

Others to be screened are Professor Mohammed Sani, Professor Kunle Ajayi, Ekiti; Saidu Ahmad, Jigawa; Professor Muhammad Kallah, Katsina; Dr Baba Bila, North-East, and Professor Sani Adam, North-Central.

The Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie is already in the Senate waiting to be screened.

A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) Tuesday, urged the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination of Lauretta Onochie as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The plaintiffs, in their suit filed on July 6, 2021, are challenging Senate’s “referral, consideration, screening and possible confirmation” of Ms Onochie for the position on the grounds that she is “a well-known card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and currently serving as the Personal Assistant on Social Media to President Buhari.

VIDEO: “Give Nigerians a credible electoral bill” ~
Alliance for Civil society groups storm the National Assembly in protest, prevailing on lawmakers to reject the forged Section 50 (2) and other manipulated sections of the Electoral Bill.

#SaveOurElections #PassElectoralBill

Originally tweeted by NewsWireNGR (@NewsWireNGR) on .

Citing various constitutional provisions barring card-carrying members of political parties from being nominated or appointed to serve in the electoral body, the plaintiffs asked the court to declare Ms Onochie’s nomination as INEC commissioner as “wrongful, illegal, null and void”, and prayed that “same should be set aside”.

Recall that the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, had last week stormed the National Assembly with other members of the National Working Committee, NWC, to protest Onochie’s nomination.

@OfficialPDPNig and Nigerians reject in totality the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as an @inecnigeria Commissioner.

VIDEO: PDP protest against the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner at the National Assembly.

Originally tweeted by NewsWireNGR (@NewsWireNGR) on .

The leadership of the opposition PDP who defied the rain, had described Onochie as a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, who should not be saddled with such a very sensitive position as she might compromise to the detriment of democracy and the country.

Secondus, the PDP NWC members and supporters stormed the MOPOL Gate of the National Assembly on Wednesday, June 30, to kick against Onochie’s nomination.