Buhari appoints Lauretta Onochie as NDDC chair

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Lauretta Onochie as the chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board.

The president, in a letter sent to the Senate requested the chamber to confirm Onochie his aide on social media, to be the substantive chair of the NDDC Board.

The letter was read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday.

Apart from Onochie, the president sent the names of 15 other nominees as board members of the commission.

They are:
Samuel Ibukun as managing director
Charles Ehigie Airhiavbere as director of finance
Charles Ogunmola as director of project
Dimgba Erugba (Abia)
Ene Wilcox (Akwa Ibom)
Pius Odudu (Edo)
Gbenga Odegba (Ondo)
Anthony Ekene (Imo)
Onyekachi Dimgba (Rivers).

Others are:
Mohammed Kabiru Abubakar (Nasarawa)
Tallen Mamma (Adamawa)
Sodique Sani.

Onochie was recently in a controversy after the president nominated her as a commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in October 2020.

Her nomination sparked outrage over concerns that she is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but the presidential aide said she resigned her membership of the ruling party in 2019.

In 2021, when the upper legislative chamber considered and screened her for the appointment, she was eventually disqualified.