TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Lauretta Onochie, a presidential aide, of spewing  “falsehood” before the senate committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

President Muhammadu Buhari had sent a request for Onochie’s confirmation to the senate in October 2020.

Eight months later — on June 9, 2021 — Senate President Ahmad Lawan asked INEC to screen the presidential aide.

Many citizens have expressed their misgivings about the nomination, arguing that Onochie is partisan, being a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On June 30, PDP held a demonstration at the national assembly to protest the nomination, but despite the backlash, the senate carried on with the screening process.

On Thursday, while standing before the senate screening panel, Onochie said she is not a member of any political party.

“I have seen the petitions against me, but I stand for justice and fairness. Thus nobody has anything to fear,” she had said.

“I am madam due process, and this is the reason behind my attacks because I follow the law and due process.

“I had no partisanship bone in my body until I was invited to come and work with President Muhammadu Buhari.”

Reacting to her claim, PDP, in a statement on Thursday, described the presidential aide as “a die in the wool APC member”.

The statement, signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s national publicity secretary, claimed Onochie is “number 2 on the ward 4 register of the APC in Aniocha LGA of Delta state”, and asked the senate to reject the nomination.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has derided All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart and President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide, Lauretta Onochie, for denying her life in a desperation to be appointed as a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” the statement reads.

“Nigerians were amused to watch Lauretta Onochie, a nationally known APC frontrunner, as she spewed falsehood before the Senator Kabiru Gaya-fed Senate Committee on INEC in denial of her membership of the APC.

“With her lies, Lauretta Onochie, a die in the wool APC member whose name appears as number 2 on the ward 4 register of the APC in Aniocha LGA of Delta state, has further demonstrated her lack of integrity to be trusted with the position of a national commissioner in INEC.

“Lauretta Onochie, in her escapade in the Senate, may have forgotten that the lawmakers and Nigerians in general, are aware of her subsisting oath filed in a pending suit in court affirming her membership of the APC, which she further reinforced and adopted under cross-examination in the same matter very recently.

“With such proclivity to desperate denials in the face of the truth, allowing Lauretta Onochie anywhere near INEC would pollute the commission as well as the conduct of elections by the commission.

“Now that the facts of Onochie’s partisanship have been further laid bare before the Senate, the PDP urges the Senator Gaya Committee on INEC to stand on the side of the constitution and the sanctity of our electoral process by outrightly rejecting the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner.”