INEC Commissioner: Onochie loses out as Senate steps down confirmation

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie who was nominated as Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has lost out.

Sources said Senate has stepped down her. nomination and has reached out to the presidency to shop for replacement.

After the executive communication from the presidency to the Senate requesting for Lauretta’s confirmation as INEC Commissioner, it became a subject of public outcry, given her political colouration.

The Nigerian Senate is All Progressives Congress dominated, but the Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan’s leadership seemed to have read between the lines, and deliberately delayed confirmation.

Her confirmation, a controversial one. was delaying three others, a.situstion that has propelled the Senate Committee on INEC headed by Senator Kabiru Gaya to screen only the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu.

Buhari had on October 13, nominated Onochie and three others as INEC commissioners: Prof. Muhammad Sani Kallah (National, from Katsina State); Prof. Kunle Cornelius Ajayi (Ekiti) and Saidu Babura Ahmad (Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC (Jigawa).

Buhari, in the letter, had said: “Pursuant to Paragraph 14 of Part I (F) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, I hereby forward for confirmation by the Senate, the appointment of the following four Commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

Lauretta Onochie hails from Delta State and was to represent the State.