Mrs. Lauretta Onochie, one of the nominees for the Federal Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday admitted that she was once a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but said she’s no longer a card-carrying member of the party.
Onochie, who is the Special Assistant on Social Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, while appearing before the Senate Committee on INEC stated that she stopped being a member of the party before the 2019 general elections.
Onochie was nominated as a Federal Commissioner to represent the South-South Zone of Nigeria by the President, a decision which has been generating widespread condemnation from Nigerians including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Civil Society Organisations.
However, speaking during the screening by the Senate Committee on INEC on Thursday, Onochie, denied viral claims that she is still a member of the ruling party.
While answering questions from the former Deputy Senate President, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu; Senator Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West) and Senator Itsifanus Gyang (Plateau South), Onochie said she dumped the APC, noting that she didn’t participate during the APC’s revalidation and registration exercise which held earlier this year.
In her words: “Like I said, as from 2019, after President Muhammad Buhari was reelected, my duties in politics ended and it stopped. And all my concern thereafter was to support Mr. President”, Onochie told the Committee.
She also admitted swearing an oath at an Abuja Federal High Court that she was a member of the APC.
