By Victor Osula, Abuja
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday declined clearance for Ms Lauretta Onochie as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Senate Committee on the INEC on Tuesday said her nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari violate the Federal Character principle in the 1999 Constitution.
According to Senator Kabiru Gaya, Chairman of the Committee, Section 14 (1) 3 of the Constitution, states that somebody was already a Commissioner from her zone, and the law remains clear about that.
What that means is that Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu represents Delta as National Commissioner, against Onoche’s suggestion during clearance that she represents Cross Rivers State in an attempt to sway the Committee to her side. Agbamuche is the Chairman, Legal Services, INEC and hails from Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State. She still has one year to complete her five-year tenure.
Onoche, currently Personal Assistant to the President on New Media, had also denied membership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, since 2019 but unfortunately for her a June 2021 affidavit in which she swore to being a member of the party’s surfaced on social media to prove her a liar as well as her ward registration membership file showing her as number four on the list of member of the party.
In the letter sent to the Senate by President Buhari, Onochie was listed as nominee for Delta alongside three others, namely “Muhammad Kallah (National Electoral Commissioner), Katsina; Lauretta Onochie (National Electoral Commissioner), Delta; Kunle Cornelius Ajayi (National Electoral Commissioner), Ekiti; and Saidu Babura Ahmad (Resident Electoral Commissioner), Jigawa.
Section 14(1)(a&b) of the Third Schedule of the 1999, “the… Commission (INEC) shall comprise the following members: a). a chairman, who shall be the Chief Electoral Commissioner; b). twelve other members to be known as National Electoral Commissioners.”
That means that two national commissioners must be drawn from each of the country’s six geopolitical zones.
