A court document has revealed how Lauretta Onochie, a presidential nominee for a sensitive Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) position, proudly declared her membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ms Onochie, currently the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media, also confirmed in the document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, that she is into active politics.
She also described herself as a “volunteer at the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO)”, a vibrant network of Mr Buhari’s staunch political supporters since the 2015 elections.
The document, which is her statement on oath filed in a pending suit, further confirms her widely known unapologetic partisanship, which has sparked public outrage against her recent nomination by Mr Buhari as a national commissioner of INEC.
She filed the statement on oath as part of a libel suit that she instituted at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja, in 2016.
In the suit marked CV/852/16, Ms Onochie seeks N1 billion in damages against Emeka Ugwonye, whom she accused of defaming her by referring to her as a trafficker of young girls for international prostitution, in a Facebook post of January 21, 2016.
The suit was amended and refiled on March 8, 2017.
She was cross-examined by the defence team only last year, precisely on February 26 and March 3, 2020, when she also adopted all her claims contained in her statement on oath as true.
“The onus to prove whether Lauretta Onochie is a card-carrying member of any political party, therefore, rest on her accusers,” the lawyers wrote without stating that they were acting for Ms Onochie.
The court document obtained by this newspaper has, however, removed every doubt about her membership of APC and her strong political bias for the political interests of Mr Buhari.
She made the disclosure in the document, bragging to be an educationist and ‘active politician’, whose reputation was injured by the Facebook post complained of in her suit.
She stated that with the “words” used in the post, her reputation “has been seriously injured in her character, credit, reputation and integrity” and “has been brought to public scandal, odium, and contempt and has suffered damage”.
“I am an educationist having served as Headmistress of Aunt Margaret International School Calabar and Principal of Holy Child Secondary School, Calabar. I have also served as a Lecturer at the Epping Forest College Essex United Kingdom,” she said of her career as an educationist.
Regarding her political career, she said, “That I am also engaged in active politics and a member of the Neighbourhood Watch and has also contested the Local Government elections under the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom.
“I am also a member of the All Progressives Congress and a volunteer at the Buhari Support Group.”
