Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, deputy chief whip of the senate, has condemned Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, for telling him to “shut up,” describing the remark as disrespectful to his status as a red cap chief.
He stated this while speaking in an interview on AIT’s Kaakaki on Monday.
Tribune Online reports that Nwaebonyi had an heated exchange with Ezekwesili during a senate committee hearing on March 25.
The session was centered on a petition from Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, senator representing Kogi Central, who accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment.
ALSO READ: Ezekwesili gives reason for telling Senator Nwaebonyi to ‘shut up’
Ezekwesili attended the hearing as a witness alongside Abiola Akiode, counsel to Akpoti-Uduaghan, and petitioner Zubairu Yakubu.
Nwaebonyi, appearing as a witness for Akpabio, repeatedly interrupted the former minister, prompting Ezekwesili to say, “compose himself and stop making noise” and said “please, will you shut up?”
This provoked an outburst from Nwaebonyi causing an heated exchange between him and Ezekwesili.
Reacting to the exchange, Nwaebonyi insisted that such words were unacceptable.
He said, “As a person, I can’t talk to my wife like that in public. I can’t talk to my driver like that in public. I can’t talk to any woman like that, I have never done that in my life. I respect women.
“I am one of the people that has been championing the rights and privileges of women.
“As a legal practitioner, I won so many cases for women that were denied their rights of inheriting their father’s properties because their father had no male child.
“I won so many cases pro bono. The facts are there. If you go to Ebonyi, you would see them.
“I am one of the leaders from the south-east that has a programme for building houses for widows, sponsoring their children in school.
“I have over 300 of them. All these are to show the respect, and regard, and love I have for women.
The senator further emphasised his contributions to society and expressed his displeasure at being publicly dismissed.
He continued, “But, for a woman to get up in public, and tell me to shut up my mouth and call me a hooligan, a red cap chief in Igboland that has made his mark…
“I have made my contribution. I stood for election, I had the votes of over 500 people to be in the senate.
“And for somebody who has never won a ward councillor to come to my office and tell me to shut up my mouth and call me a hooligan… this is unacceptable.
“I am going to take her up within the Igbo traditional leadership because it has never happened.”
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