Senator: Why I exchanged words with Ezekwesili at Senate’s hearing

The senator representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, Onyekachi Nwebonyi, has spoken about his altercation with the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, during the Senate Ethics Committee’s hearing.

Nwebonyi had a verbal clash with Ezekwesili at the Senate committee’s proceeding into the sexual harassment allegations involving suspended senator representing Kogi Central Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio in Abuja on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

The heated argument started when Nwaebonyi resorted to derogatory remarks, labelling Ezekwesili an “insult to womanhood” and a “hooligan”.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday night, Nwebonyi lashed out at Ezekwesili for first calling him a hooligan and asking him to shut up.

The lawmaker said: “It started when she was asked to be an oath because she said she was a witness. She said, ‘no she can’t be on oath, she can’t oath.’

“As a person, I said I am willing to be sworn on oath so that I can give my own evidence. I was addressing the presiding office. She turned to me and said, ‘Will you shut up your mouth, you are a hooligan.”

Nwaebonyi further disclosed that he replied Ezekwesili saying: “You are the hooligan. For a mother like you, a grandmother of your age, a former minister of the federal republic to tell a sitting senator to shut up his mouth and added that I am a hooligan.”

When asked if his response to the former minister was fair, the senator queried why she would treat him in that manner.

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“How can I regret the scenario? I gave it to her. Is it fair for her to address me that way? As a former minister of the federal republic and a grandmother, ask her first,” Nwaebonyi stated.

Also speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Ezekwesili disclosed that the Senate panel explained that the case was before the court and was sub judice.

She said: “The petitioner had insisted that he would not proceed with his main petition until he received assurances regarding the two objections he had raised.

“However, the panel interpreted this stance as a sign that we were not ready to engage in the matter.

“Then, suddenly, they also argued that the case was sub judice because there were two related cases in court.

“They mentioned the case filed by the wife of the senate president and suggested that, based on that, proceedings should not continue.

“At that point, Dr Abiola questioned the very basis for convening the jury. While all of this was unfolding, a certain senator – whom I will not acknowledge by name – spoke up (referring to Nwaebonyi).

“He declared that since we were unwilling to provide any testimony, he was present as a representative of the senate president, who was the respondent, and that he was prepared to speak because, in his view, we could not continue in this manner.

“In response, ‘I said to him, can you please shut up?’ because we had just been informed that we were not allowed to speak, yet he was doing so freely without any form of an equivalent treatment.

“The justification for silencing us was that we were unwilling to proceed without first addressing our objections.

“When I told him to be quiet and that remark provoked the senator, though he was already agitated.

“He was already provoked, his anger stemmed from the belief that we were not taking the matter seriously.”

The Star