Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has warned the Senate against confirming Lauretta Onochie, President Muhammadu Buhari’s aide, as a National Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The Rights group asked the Senate not to confirm Onochie, describing her as a person widely known to be deeply divisive and a strong member of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.
Onochie is also seen by the group as one of the die-hard partisan loyalists of the Buhari government.
HURIWA warned that any attempt to confirm the Delta-born presidential aide as INEC commissioner would be the death nail to the coffin of the independence and impartiality of INEC.
The group said the confirmation of Onochie would unambiguously become the everlasting evidence that the National Assembly has become a rubber-stamped institution and open to corruption and compromises.
“We believe that Onochie, who openly confessed her membership to the All Progressives Congress and has posted a lot of statements on the popular social media platforms to demonstrate her aversion for multiparty democracy but prefers a one-party state, is not a fit and proper person to be so appointed into INEC.
“Her enlistment into INEC means that the 2023 election has been rigged already in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Her going to INEC means the official obituary and death of INEC”.
HURIWA asked the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan and other lawmakers to maintain the already established precedent by rejecting Onochie’s nomination.