Lauretta Onochie to know fate as INEC commissioner Tuesday

Lauretta Onochie

Lauretta Onochie, a commissioner nominee for Independent National Electoral Commission would know her fate on Tuesday after she was screened by the Senate on Thursday.

A senior official close to the Senate panel that screened the former aide of President Buhari told Daily Trust that the panel will submit its report to the plenary on Tuesday.

Onochie was screened alongside Prof. Muhammad Sani Kallah (Katsina), Prof. Kunle Cornelius Ajayi (Ekiti), Saidu Babura Ahmad (Jigawa), Prof. Sani Muhammad Adam (North Central) and Dr. Baba Bila (North East) for the post of INEC commissioner.

They all will know their fate on Tuesday.

The nomination of the former aide of President Buhari has sparked outrage from the opposition lawmakers and some from the All Progressives Congress and civil society groups.

They argued that she was too partisan to be a commissioner in an important institution like INEC.

Other nominees who are also refused as nominees are accused of being card-carrying members of the ruling APC.

Onochie, however, has said she stopped being a member of the APC in 2019.

After the screening of all nominees on Friday, Senate Committee on INEC chaired by a former Kano State governor and Senator representing Kano South, Kabiru Gaya, said the committee would look at all the documents before the panel, sieve them, take a decision on the nominees and forward its recommendations to the Senate.

“The report on the screening last Thursday will be submitted to the Senate when it resumes plenary on Tuesday,” a senior official close to the Senate panel told Daily Trust.