JUST IN: Buhari appoints Lauretta Onochie as NDDC Board Chair

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Lauretta Onochie as chairperson of the Niger Delta Development Council (NDDC).

He also nominated 15 other candidates as board members.

The nominations were set out in a letter to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who read them out at the start of the plenary on Wednesday.

Ms Onochie, currently Special Assistant to the President for New Media, was embroiled in a controversial nomination for election arbiter, INEC, in 2020. She was appointed by Mr Buhari as Commissioner of INEC to represent Delta State.

The nomination sparked a public outcry from individuals, civic groups and opposition parties who wrote petitions, staged protests and called on the Senate to reject Ms. Onochie's nomination.

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Many have also called the nomination unconstitutional, primarily because she is partisan and openly campaigned for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Though she told the Senate Committee on INEC that she left politics in 2019 and was no longer partisan — a claim that turned out to be false, she was dismissed by the Senate in July.

The basis for his rejection was not his partisanship, however. The Senate said his nomination was rejected because "it violates the principle of federal character".

“In the case of Ms. Onochie…the Senate may wish to recall that in 2016, the Senate, based on the recommendation of its INEC committee, confirmed Barr. May Agbamuche-Mbu of the Delta State as the National Commissioner to INEC, who is still in office," explained Kabiru Gaya, Chairman of the INEC Committee. "Confirming the appointment of Ms. Lauretta Onochie from the same Delta State will be a principle of federal character.

“Therefore, based on the provisions of Section 14(3) of the Constitution…and in order that the Committee and the Senate achieve fairness to other states and political areas within the county, the Committee no. is unable to recommend Ms. Lauretta Onochie for confirmation as National Electoral Commissioner for INEC, but would instead recommend that the Senate ask the President to make another nomination."

Some of the other candidates for the NDDC board are Dimgba Erugba - State Representative (Abia, South-East), Ene Wilcox (Akwa Ibom, State Representative, South-South), Pius Odudu (Edo, South-South), Gbenga Odegba (South-West, Ondo) and Anthony Ekene (South-East, Imo State).

Others are Onyekachi Dimgba (Rivers State South South), Mohammed Abubakar (Area Representative, Nasarawa), Tallen Mamma, (Northeast Representative, Adamawa), Sodic Sani (Northwest, Area Representative), Samuel Ibukun (MD), Charles Airhiavbere, (Director of Finance) and Charles Ogunmola (Executive Director Project, South West).

Candidates will be selected by the Senate Committee on the NDDC on another legislative day.

More details later…

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