I WILL REPORT EZEKWESILI TO IGBO TRADITIONAL LEADERS, NWAEBONYI THREATENS. (PHOTO).

 I will report Ezekwesili to Igbo traditional leaders, Nwaebonyi threatens

Deputy Senate Chief Whip Onyekachi Nwaebonyi has vowed to escalate his recent confrontation with Oby Ezekwesili, the former Minister of Education, to traditional Igbo leaders. 

Nwaebonyi stated this on Monday during an appearance on 'Kakaaki', an AIT breakfast program, after Ezekwesili publicly told him to "shut up his mouth."

The incident stems from a fiery clash between the two prominent figures during a Senate committee hearing on March 25. 

The session, convened by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, centered around a new petition from Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central. 

Akpoti-Uduaghan has repeatedly accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment.

Ezekwesili, who was present as a witness alongside Abiola Akiode, counsel to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the petitioner Zubairu Yakubu, was caught in a war of words with Nwaebonyi, a key witness for Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

The confrontation unfolded when Nwaebonyi, who was representing Akpabio’s interests, repeatedly interrupted Ezekwesili as she spoke. In response to the interruptions, Ezekwesili, visibly frustrated, told the senator to "compose himself and stop making noise," and said “please, will you shut up?”.

While reacting to the incident, Nwaebonyi described the public rebuke of the former Minister as “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 have 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.”