The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has described the consideration of Ms Lauretta Onochie as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a desperate move by President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which he noted is a bad omen for democracy.
He appealed to the President to withdraw the nomination of Onochie, for the sake of his legacy and in order not to create unnecessary problems for INEC in 2023.
The governor, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt during the account of stewardship in his second term in office, described Onochie as a core member of the APC, whose membership should have been used against her nomination and screening.
Wike said: “For goodness sake, the nomination and desperation of President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled National Assembly to foist an invalid Ms. Lauretta Onochie on Nigerians as INEC’s National Commissioner is a bad omen for our democracy.
“By any standards, the most fundamental consideration against the appointment of an electoral umpire in a democracy is the likelihood of bias, which in this case, is heavily weighted against Ms. Onochie, as a notorious and repulsively partisan dye-in-the-wool member of the APC.
“Despite the flood of protests against her nomination and the general lack of trust in our capacity to remain impartial, it seems the APCled Senate is determined to confirm her appointment as part of their grand design to rig the 2023 general elections well ahead of time, knowing Nigerians would overwhelmingly reject them in a free, fair and transparent contest managed by a strong and independent election management committee.
As a governor and concerned Nigerian who loves this country so much and wants our democracy to survive, I wish to appeal to Mr. President to, for the sake of his legacy, withdraw Ms. Onochie’s nomination to avoid creating more credibility problems for his INEC and restore confidence in our electoral system.
“Where Mr. President lacks the courage to do so, then, the National Assembly, which has a responsibility to defend our democracy, must endeavour to wake up on the right side of history by rejecting her nomination.”
The governor, who also spoke on the proposed amendments to the Electoral Act, reported slated to be laid before the National Assembly today, commending “the House of Representatives for affirming and reassuring Nigerians on its positive provisions in the proposed bill on electronic voting and simultaneous transmission of unit results by electronic means