Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, representing Ebonyi North, has accused former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, of disrespecting him as a red cap chief after she allegedly told him to “shut up” during a Senate hearing.
The confrontation occurred at the hearing on the sexual harassment allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio, raised by the suspended Kogi Central lawmaker, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Nwaebonyi claimed that Ezekwesili not only told him to shut up but also called him a hooligan.
A video of the incident captured Nwaebonyi responding by stating that Ezekwesili was “an insult to womanhood.”
During an interview on AIT’s Kakaaki programme on Monday, Nwaebonyi expressed his displeasure and vowed to report Ezekwesili to traditional leaders in Igbo land.
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.
“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 councillorship election 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.”
