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The Senior Special Assitant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media,Lauretta Onochie, has said she is not a member of any political party.
Onochie stated this when she appeared before the senate committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The presidential aide was screened on Thursday as an INEC commissioner.
Buhari nominated her for the role in October 2020, but the senate only began working on the request for her confirmation in June.
MNigerians had condemned the nomination on the grounds that Onochie is a card carrying member of All Progressives Congress (APC).
While appearing before the committee, she said the petitions against her nomination emerged because she follows “due process.”
“I have seen the petitions against me but I stand for justice and fairness. Thus nobody has anything to fear.
“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,” she said.
Dissatisfied with response, Ike Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu West, Ike Ekweremadu, asked Onochie to reject the nomination and “protect the integrity of the president.”
On his part, Istifanus Gyang, senator representing Plateau North, presented an affidavit in which Onochie said she is an APC member.
In response, Onochie said since Buhari was re-elected in 2019, she has not engaged in politics.
“Since Buhari was elected as president for the second term, I have removed myself from everything about politics.
“Since 2019, I don’t have anything to do with politics. As I am sitting down here, I am not a member of any political party in this country,”She said.
Yahaya Gumau, Senator representing Bauchi South, and Opeyemi Bamidele, Senator representing Ekiti North, spoke in Onochie’s defence.
Bamidele argued that INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, worked with Buhari in different capacities, adding that it did not affect him when he was nominated as chairman of the electoral body.
Onochie’s eventual confirmation will is dependent on the recommendations of the committee to the senate.