President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Lauretta Onochie, as the substantive chairman of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and nominated 15 others as board members.
This was contained in a letter addressed President Buhari to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan requesting the Senateto confirm the nominees.
Recall that Buhari had, in October 2020, nominated Onochie, his aide on new media as National Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to represent Delta State.
Onochie’s nomination was greeted with massive outrage, with many opposition politicians and civil society groups calling for her rejection on the grounds that she was too partisan to serve in a sensitive institution like INEC.
She was also accused of being a card-carrying member of All Progressives Congress, a claim she denied three times during her screening.
The Senate rejected her nomination based on federal character principle.
The chairman of the screening panel, Senator Kabiru Gaya said there was currently a serving commissioner of INEC from Delta State, where Onochie hails from, and confirming her appointment would violate constitutional provision.
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