The All Progressives Congress has tackled the Peoples Democratic Party for faulting the nomination of a presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, as a commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The ruling party alleged that “some members and brazen apologists” of the PDP are also commissioners of INEC.
This was contained in a statement by the Yekini Nabena, APC deputy spokesman, on Friday.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had nominated Onochie along with three others as National Commissioners of INEC on Tuesday.
Onochie was announced as a nominee to represent Delta State, while Profesor Mohammed Sani, Professor Kunle Ajayi, and Seidu Ahmed, will represent Katsina, Ekiti, and Jigawa states, respectively.
APC claimed that Johnson Alalibo was a card-carrying member of PDP before being appointed Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner.
It also noted that the current INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was a Federal Government appointee before his emergence as the electoral boss.
Part of the statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Lauretta Onochie as a National Electoral Commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission has been subject to rash, subjective, misplaced, and selective criticism by the Peoples Democratic Party and some interest groups,” Nabena said.
“Perhaps the PDP needs to be reminded that one of its card-carrying members, Dr. Johnson Alalibo is the current Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner.
“Alalibo who was also a former Deputy Whip in the Bayelsa state house of assembly has been an electoral asset to the PDP but that is an issue to be addressed another day.
“Since public service now equates ‘partisanship’ we invite the Peoples Democratic Party to equally fault appointment of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the current INEC Chairman who was the immediate-past Executive Secretary of the government’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) as well as the earlier stated Dr. Johnson Alalibo.”
