BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Nigerians were shocked last week when at the National Assembly, a top notch vocal member of the ruling All Progressives Congress and President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide, Laureta Onochie, unequivocally denounced both the party and President Buhari in order to scale the hurdles of becoming an Independent National Electoral Commissioner.
The Anioma, Delta state born politician, also denied being in politics since the President’s second term in 2019 even when an affidavit she swore to in 2020 which was read to her, glaringly should otherwise.
Her denial has not only exposed her desperation but also shows her as a “liar” to the whole world. The Coalition of United Political Parties has not relented in its quest to stop her from being confirmed as a Commissioner with the INEC and has warned against her confirmation by the National Assembly.
The CUPP also alleged that President Buhari is “harbouring a third term agenda” claiming that it could be one of the major reasons of his insistence to make his aide a commissioner in the INEC.
Nigerians and the entire world that watched her denied the APC were certainly astonished knowing full well that she is not only a member of the party but very obedient personal aide to the President who wasted no single minute in abusing whoever says or writes anything against the administration of her boss.
The CUPP in a statement by its spokesperson, Mark Adebayo, titled, ‘Onochie’s INEC nomination is to perfect Buhari’s third term agenda’ described the nomination and senate screening of Onochie as “a dangerous threat to democracy and the unveiling of APC’s third-term agenda”.
This allegation as heavy as it sounds seems not to have any meaning to the Senate that has APC in majority and went ahead with the screening against various agitations and calls to stop her.
Part of the CUPP statement claims that “in the established tradition of the Buhari regime, it has again turned deaf ears to the overwhelming public outcry against the ill-advised nomination of a known sycophant of the president as an INEC commissioner.
“Since last year that the nomination of Mrs Onochie went public, many sociopolitical organisations, opinion moulders, Civil Society Organisations and the general public have raised an alarm on the danger a publicly biased individual can unleash on our Electoral system and democracy, but typical of this government that runs a near-fascist regime, it has ignored these patriotic calls for restraint on this Onochie nomination nonsense”.
The main opposition party, PDP has not kept mum in the whole scenario. The party has in addition to protest march to the National Assembly cautioned its senators against supporting the clandestine move by President Buhari to appoint his personal aide a commissioner in the INEC.
The PDP warned that it would not hesitate to sack or retrieve seats of all its federal legislators who dumped the party.
The party officially sent a letter to the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC signed by the Party’s national secretary, Senator Umaru Tsauri. The letter was titled ‘Rejection of the Nomination of Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner’.
In the letter, PDP stated clearly that its National Working Committee (NWC) stands against the nomination which has created a lot of misgivings in the court of public opinion and judgement.
According to the PDP letter, “The nomination which was read on the floor of the Senate and forwarded to your committee for screening has created a lot of misgivings in the court of public opinion and judgement”
The Party demanded that the National Assembly must endeavour to do things right and in accordance with the dictates of the laws of the country.
