All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State has suspended the chairperson of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, from the party.

After deliberating on her conduct during the just concluded general elections, executive members of the party in Onicha-Olona Ward 4 in Aniocha North approved her suspension from the party. A copy of her suspension letter made available to our correspondent stated that she was found campaigning for candidates of opposition parties, especially the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Her allies and supporters were said to have also worked for the PDP, making the party lose in her polling unit and other places.

They revealed that she has never met her financial obligations to the party, neither does she attend ward or local government area meetings or any of the party’s engagements. Meanwhile, the G37, a political support group yesterday deplored the suspension of the chairperson of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, by the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Onicha-Olona, ward 4, Aniocha North of Delta State. In a statement issued yesterday in Portharcourt, Rivers State, the national coordinator of the group, Comrade Evans City, said Onochie’s purported suspension is a mischief taken too far. He challenged the party executives to come forward with proof of their allegations, noting that the accusation cannot be true going by the efforts made by the NDDC boss to deliver the APC during the campaign for the general elections.

He said Onochie was at the forefront of campaigning for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South-South states, including Rivers State. “It is unthinkable to say that Lauretta campaigned for the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku Abubakar when we all saw how she mobilized for the APC in Rivers and some other South-South States. Those who hatched this theatre of the absurd called her suspension are jesters. They can’t use the just concluded general election to actualize their plan to remove her as NDDC chairperson. The script was poorly executed because the handlers failed to remember that Atiku had impending litigation against Onochie arising from the 2019 presidential election.” The G37 group further alleged that the APC executives may have been sponsored by detractors who had been hell-bent on ensuring the NDDC boss is removed from office. The group’s national coordinator further called on the national leadership of the APC to wade into the matter and get it resolved amicably.