Lauretta Onochie: Confirmation by Senate grand design to rig 2023 elections ― Wike

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said the seeming determination of Nigeria’s Senate to confirm the appointment of Miss Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner despite widespread rejection and protest is part of the APC-led Senate design to rig the 2023 general elections.

The governor described the attempt to foist Ms Onochie on Nigerians as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a bad omen for Nigeria’s democracy.

The governor made the assertion in Port Harcourt during the occasion of rendering account of his stewardship in six years as Governor of Rivers State.

He said that the most fundamental consideration in the appointment of a candidate as an electoral umpire, in a democratic setting, is the elimination of bias stating that there was a heavily weighted bias against Ms Onoche because she is a partisan member of the All progressives Congress (APC).

Wike said; “Despite the flood of protests against her nomination and the general lack of trust in our capacity to remain impartial, it seems the APC-led Senate is determined to confirm her appointment as part of their grand design to rig the 2023 general elections well ahead of time, knowing Nigerians would overwhelmingly reject them in a free, fair and transparent contest managed by a strong and independent election management committee.

“As a governor and concerned Nigerian who loves this country so much and wants our democracy to survive, I wish to appeal to Mr President, for the sake of his legacy, to withdraw Ms Onoche’s nomination to avoid creating more credibility problems for his INEC and restore confidence in our electoral system.

“Where Mr President lacks the courage to so do, then, the National Assembly, which has a responsibility to defend our democracy must endeavour to wake up on the right side of history by rejecting her nomination.”

On the proposed amendments to the Electoral Act, the governor said everyone who meant well for Nigeria’s democracy believes that electronic voting and simultaneous transmission of results have the potential to prevent the large-scale rigging of elections.

He commended the House of Representatives for affirming and reassuring Nigerians on its positive provisions in the proposed bill on electronic voting and simultaneous transmission of unit results by electronic means.

“President Buhari readily attributes his victory in both the 2015 and 2019 polls to the introduction of the novel card reader device by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration; yet he has been overly reluctant on the need to midwife the birth of a new, transparent, efficient and trustworthy electoral system for the country,” Wike alleged.

“Let me, therefore, warn that we do not need a soothsayer to tell us that to allow the old ways of doing things and much-vilified status quo to continue to prevail in our electoral system as recommended by the Senate’s version of the bill would be a complete disservice to the nation and a recipe for disaster for our country.”

Governor Wike stated that with a commitment to purpose and prudent management of available resources, his administration in the past six years has drastically changed the development trajectory of the State for the better.

The governor said the newly commissioned Rivers Cassava Processing Company by his administration alongside the cassava value chain will be used to create wealth, income and jobs for Rivers’ teaming youths who are willing to take to the business of agriculture.

He explained that since 2015, his administration has delivered over a thousand kilometres of Trunk-A roads; embarked on the construction of phase one of the trans-Kalabari road, simultaneous construction of ten arterial flyovers, with three already commissioned and connected the ancient coastal community of Opobo to the rest of the state and the country by a tarred road.

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