Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has detailed her confrontation with Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi during the Senate committee hearing regarding sexual harassment allegations made by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Ezekwesili said there was a lot of rigmarole, indicating that the committee was trying to make things difficult for the petitioner.
According to her, Nwebonyi, on his part, claimed that the petitioner and the people with her were not serious about giving any testimony.
Ezekwesili said that she, in turn, told the Ebonyi senator to shut up.
Nwebonyi, representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, and Ezekwesili had a heated verbal clash on Tuesday.
The confrontation occurred during an Ethics Committee hearing on sexual harassment allegations involving suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central and Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
During the altercation, Senator Nwebonyi was heard telling Dr. Ezekwesili, “You are an insult to womanhood, you are a disgrace to womanhood. People like you can never be here.”
However, while speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme on Tuesday, the ex-Minister gave more details about what transpired during the Senate hearing.
Ezekwesili said: “There was a lot of rigmarole and all the senators were doing in that committee was to let us know that the rules would make it difficult for the right of a citizen who was saying that, number one, I object on the basis of the fact that members of this Senate, especially the chair, at various times, had already taken public positions on the petition of my senator. I am her constituent, and I feel injured by what has happened.”
“While all of that was going on, then this senator, who I will not acknowledge by mentioning his name as well, said, ‘Well, if they’re not serious about giving any testimony, I am here representing the Senate President as a respondent, and I am prepared to speak because, you know, we can’t continue with this.’”
“So I said to him, can you please shut up? Because, I mean, we were just told that we couldn’t speak, and you have been speaking without any form of equivalent treatment. We couldn’t speak because we were not ready to go into any conversation, right, without the objections being addressed. So when I said that, he was provoked.”
“How could you describe us as unserious and that you were there to do your presentation for the Senate President? When he did that, I said to him, can you please shut up? We’re speaking. That was the beginning of his torrent of insults.”
“So already, he was charged. And so, on the basis of that, when I said to him, ‘You should hold your peace,’ he flared up. And then he began to release all that he released, showing the kind of indecorous personalities that we do have within our public space.”
