{"id":35165,"date":"2020-10-14T09:25:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T09:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165"},"modified":"2020-10-14T09:25:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T09:25:23","slug":"onochies-nomination-for-inec-job-provocative-assault-on-nigerias-constitution-democratic-process-pdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165","title":{"rendered":"Onochie\u2019s nomination for INEC job provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution, democratic process \u2014PDP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"ZAMFARA:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s appointment of his special assistant on social media, Ms. Lauretta Onochie, as a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a highly provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution and democratic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onochie<\/a>, an aide to Buhari and a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was among the four names Buhari forwarded to the Senate on Tuesday to confirm their nomination as INEC commissioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reacting in a statement same day, the PDP decried the action of the president, saying that it was ominous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndeed, from Mr President\u2019s public promises, one would have thought that he was desirous of leaving a legacy of credible elections, having failed in all ramifications of governance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, this nomination of his personal staff, Lauretta Onchie, as INEC national commissioner, supports the position of the PDP that his statements were mere glib talks on electoral sanctity and clearly demonstrates that he has no plans whatsoever to leave a legacy of credible polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis ugly development is another shameful attempt to plant unscrupulous elements in INEC in order to corrupt and further desecrate the sanctity of the commission, undermine our electoral system and destabilize our democratic process ahead of the 2023 general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had hoped that, as Mr President had professed in the past, he is truly running his second and final term in office. If that were so, then Lauretta Onochie\u2019s nomination as INEC national commissioner clearly points to a totally different direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndeed, her nomination dresses up Mr President as having more than an interest in legacy building and portrays him as one who has a personal candidature interest in the 2023 election. The only way to prove otherwise is to quickly withdraw Onochie\u2019s nomination before the Senate,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the PDP, Onochie being a card-carrying member of the APC \u201cas records shows (from Ward 5 Onicha Olona, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta state)\u201d her nomination remained a clear violation of paragraph 14 of the 3rd schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which forbids a person involved in partisan politics to hold office as a member of INEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is therefore surprising that having sworn to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr President is taking actions that are antithetical to the very constitution and democratic governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese actions are deliberate attempts by President Buhari<\/a> to inflame social tensions, undermine our constitution and desecrate the sanctity of our electoral process, rather than finding solutions to the myriads of problems pervading our country,\u201d the PDP added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s appointment of his special assistant on social media, Ms. Lauretta Onochie, as a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a highly provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution and democratic process. Onochie, an aide to Buhari and a card-carrying member of the All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOnochie\u2019s nomination for INEC job provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution, democratic process \u2014PDP » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Politics\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=10\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Onochie\u2019s nomination for INEC job provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution, democratic process \u2014PDP\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Onochie\u2019s nomination for INEC job provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution, democratic process \u2014PDP » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=35165#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Politics","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=10"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Onochie\u2019s nomination for INEC job provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution, democratic process \u2014PDP"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=10\" rel=\"category\">Politics<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s appointment of his special assistant on social media, Ms. Lauretta Onochie, as a national commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a highly provocative assault on Nigeria\u2019s constitution and democratic process. Onochie, an aide to Buhari and a card-carrying member of the All…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35165"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}