BREAKING: Senate Panel Begins Screening of Lauretta Onochie for INEC Job
- Amid rejection and heated reactions, the Senate has gone ahead to screen Lauretta Onochie as a nominee for an INEC office
- The screening is being conducted by the legislative body's committee on the commission led by Senator Kabiru Gaya
- Other nominees for similar jobs in the electoral agency are to be screened like Onochie at the floor of the Senate on Thursday, July 8
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Months after her nomination as a commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Lauretta was on Thursday, July put through screening by the Senate.
The presidential media aide's nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020 sparked nationwide reactions and comments in political and legal circles, The Cable reports.
The screening exercise which started in the morning of Thursday is supervised by the Senator Kabiru Gaya-led committee on INEC The Nation also reported.
Source: Facebook
Other persons to take part in the screening for similar nominations are Professor Mohammed Sani, Professor Kunle Ajayi, Saidu Ahmad, Professor Muhammad Kallah, Dr. Baba Bila, North-East, and Professor Sani Adam.
Lauretta Onochie: NBA reveals hard truths to Senate over INEC job
Meanwhile, the rekindled controversy over the nomination of Onochie as a commissioner of INEC was heightened on Thursday, June 10.
This came as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) called on the Senate not to consider Onochie, who happens to be a member of the All Progressives Party (APC) and a presidential media aide, for the enviable job.
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In a letter to the chairman of the Senate committee on INEC, Kabiru Gaya, the NBA's head of public interest and development law, Monday Ubani, did not only ask that Onochie be dropped but explained that she is unfit for the office due to her political affiliation.
The association also expressed doubt as to whether the council of state was consulted before the nomination according to the provision of section 154 (3) of the constitution.
Digging deeper, Ubani explained that by law, the council has the authority to advise the president as he exercises his power over INEC and any appointment in the commission.
He stated further:
“Most importantly, Paragraph 14 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Constitution (as amended) in Section 30 Number 1 of 2020, says a member of INEC should be ‘non-partisan."
Source: Legit.ng
