INEC Job: Buhari replaces Lauretta Onochie

President Muhammadu Buhari has reappointed Malam Mohammed Haruna (Niger, North Central) and Mrs May Agbamuche Mbu (Delta, South South) as National Commissioners of Independent National Electoral Commission. 

He reappointed Mbu to replace his earlier nomination of Lauretta Onochie who was rejected by the Senate.

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Buhari also nominated Ukeagu Kenneth Nnamdi (Abia – South East), Major General A. B. Alkali (rtd) – (Adamawa, North East), Engr. (Prof.) Rhoda H. Gumus (Bayelsa – South-South), Mr. Sam Olumekan (Ondo – South West) as National Commissioners of INEC and Olaniyi Olaleye Ijalaye (Ondo – South West) as Resident Electoral Commissioner.

Buhari, in a letter dated December 10, 2021 and addressed to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan, requested the Senate to confirm the nominees. 

The nomination of Lauretta Onochie, Special Assistant to the president on New Media, as a Commissioner of INEC in October 2020, had elicited outrage, with many opposition politicians and civil society groups calling for her rejection on the grounds that she was too partisan to serve in a sensitive institution. 

She had also been accused of being a card-carrying member of All Progressives Congress; a claim she denied during her screening. Her nomination was rejected in July based on federal character principle.