Lauretta Onochie’s membership of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is facing serious opposition from the civil society organisations, CSO who cite her membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC as a good reason to disqualify her as a member of the electoral body.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had on October 13, 2020 written a letter to the Senate seeking the confirmation of Onochie, his Personal Assistant on Social Media as a resident electoral commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission representing Delta State.
Buhari said her appointment is pursuant to paragraph 14 of part 1f of the first schedule of the 1999 constitution.
But this has not gone down well with rights groups in the country who insist that her appointment violates the provision of the Electoral Act which says a member of a political party should not be a member of the electoral umpire. The president has stuck to his gun, refusing to withdraw Onochie’s nomination into the electoral body.
The rights bodies are not backing down either as they have now dragged President Buhari to court over the matter, even as the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has directed the Senate Committee on INEC to screen the nominees, which also include Mohammed Sani (Katsina), Kunle Ajayi (Ekiti), and Seidu Ahmed (Jigawa) as resident electoral commissioners.
Joined in the suit are Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the federation and Minister of Justice, the senate of the federal republic of Nigeria, and Kabiru Gaya, chairman of the Senate committee on INEC.
The CSOs include the International Press Centre, Centre for Citizens with Disability, Nigerian Women Trust Fund, Incorporated Trustees of Albino Foundation, Incorporated Trustees of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, and Incorporated Trustees of Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/604/2021, filed before a federal high court in Abuja on Tuesday, the CSOs are asking the court to determine whether the president “can nominate a card-carrying member or members of his political party or any other political party in Nigeria, as a national commissioner or resident electoral commissioner for the independent national electoral commission”, contrary to Sections 14 (2a), 14 (3), 14 (3b), 14 (4) and Section 154 (1) of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended in 2011).
The applicants are also asking the court to declare the nomination of “Lauretta Onochie, a well-known Member of the All Progressives Congress and current serving personal assistant on social media to the 1st defendant (Buhari), as a national commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission”, as “wrongful, illegal, null and void and same nullified”.
The litigants also asked the court for an order of perpetual injunction “restraining the 3rd and 4th defendants (the senate and Kabiru Gaya) from referring, considering, screening, deliberating or confirming the nomination of Ms Lauretta Onochie”.
In the affidavits deposed by Ezenwa Nwagwu, board member of the incorporated trustees of YIAGA Africa Initiative, in support of the originating summons, the plaintiffs cite some reasons why Onochie should not be a member of INEC.
They include “That her criticism and constant denigration of political opponents cannot allow such opponents to be at ease seeing a member of another political party presiding as a supposed unbiased umpire.
“That based on the various baseless, bigoted and inaccurate activities of Ms Lauretta Onochie, especially on the social media, she is not a person of integrity capable of occupying a sensitive and trusted position as that of a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The presidential aide has never denied her membership of the ruling APC which her critics say disqualifies her to be a member of the body that conducts election in the country.
In a suit marked CV/852/16, filed by Onochie, in January 2016 against one Emeka Ugwuonye, whom she accused of defaming her by referring to her as a trafficker of young girls for international prostitution, the presidential adviser described herself as a “volunteer at the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO)”. The BSO is made up of staunch supporters of President Buhari.
Many Nigerians are patiently awaiting the decision of the Senate on the issue.
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