The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted claims by presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, that she is not a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan rubbished the claim in a Thursday statement.
Onochie had made the claim while appearing before the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a screening as an INEC commissioner.
President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Onochie for the role in October 2020, but her nomination has since raised serious dust among critics who described her as involved in partisan politics and therefore unqualified to hold the position.
She denied the allegation of partisanship, saying she resigned from the APC in 2019.
Onochie added that her nomination was being opposed because of her devotion to “due process”.
Reacting, the PDP accused the Delta State-born presidential aide of “denying her life in a desperation to be appointed as a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”.
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According to PDP, “Nigerians were amused to watch Lauretta Onochie, a nationally known APC front runner, as she spewed falsehood before the Senator Kabiru Gaya-led Senate Committee on INEC in denial of her membership of the APC.
“With her lies, Lauretta Onochie, a die in the wool APC member, whose name appears as number 2 on the ward 4 register of the APC in Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta state, has further demonstrated her lack of integrity to be trusted with the position of a national commissioner in INEC.
“Lauretta Onochie in her escapade in the Senate, may have forgotten that the lawmakers and Nigerians in general are aware of her subsisting oath filed in a pending suit in court affirming her membership of the APC, which she further reinforced and adopted under cross examination in the same matter very recently.
“With such proclivity to desperate denials in the face of the truth, allowing Lauretta Onochie, anywhere near INEC, would pollute the commission as well as the conduct of elections by the commission.
“Now that the facts of Onochie’s partsanship has been further laid bare before the Senate, the PDP urges the Senator Gaya Committee on INEC to stand on the side of the constitution and the sanctity of our electoral process by outrightly rejecting the nomination of Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner.”