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A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has admitted telling Ebonyi North Senator, Onyekachi Nwebonyi, to “shut up” during the hearing on a petition accusing the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment.
Mrs Ezekwesili said this during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday night.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the former minister appeared before the Senate Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petitions, which conducted a hearing o the petition brought by Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, accusing Mr Akpabio of sexual harassment.
She came in company of Zubairu Yakubu, who signed the petition on behalf of Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the senator’s legal counsel, Abiola Akiyode.
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During the hearing, Mrs Ezekwesili and the Ebonyi North Senator engaged in heated verbal exchange.
The altercation began after Mr Nwebonyi urged the committee to allow him make his own submission if the Mrs Ezekwesili-led team was not ready to proceed.
Mrs Ezekwesili then jumped in, telling the senator, “can you shut up?’
In response, an enraged Mr Nwaebonyi attacked the former minister. He said she would “never be a senator” and called her “an insult to womanhood.”
“Why should you talk to a senator like that? You can never be a senator. You are an insult to womanhood,” Mr Nwebonyi said.
Provocation during the hearing
During the television interview, Mrs Ezekwesili claimed Mr Nwebonyi used derogatory words on her and dismissed her and others present as unserious.
She said as the deliberations continued, Mr Nwebonyi who represented the senate president at the hearing kept saying he was ready to to speak since the petitioners were “not serious” about testifying, a statement she believed was unfair to her and others present for the case.
The former minister explained that the senator’s action prompted her to tell him to “shut up” with the arguement that they were denied the opportunity to speak.
“They said the matter is subjudice because there are two cases in court. They mentioned the case by the wife of the senate president and that on the basis on that, they actually shouldn’t … and it was at that time that Dr Abiola said, ‘what was the basis of convening.’
“And while all of that was going on, this senator whom I will not acknowledge by mentioning his name, he then said ‘if they’re not serious about giving any testimony, I am here representing the senate president as a respondent and that I am prepared to speak because we can’t continue with this.’
“So, I said to him, ‘can you please, shut up?’ Because we were just told that we couldn’t speak and ‘you were speaking without any form of an equivalent treatment. You said we couldn’t speak because we were not ready to go into any conversation without the objection being addressed.’
READ ALSO: Senate dismisses Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment petition as Ezekwesili, senator clash
Mrs Ezekwesili said Mr Nwebonyi was already agitated before the hearing, because the petitioner (Mr Yakubu) had previously accused him of making disparaging remarks about Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan.
She said the accusation contributed to Mr Nwebonyi’s aggressive reaction.
“He was already provoked by the fact that he thought we were being unserious. Part of what inflamed it was that the petitioner said it is this senator that made a lot of statements about my senator (Akpoti-Uduaghan) in words that were not complementary.
“So, already he was charged and on the basis of that, we were talked and he flared up and he began to release all that he released showing the kind of level of indecorous personality that we do have within our public space,” the former minister said.
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