A Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, turned into a macabre theatre of the absurd as Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, the lawmaker representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District of Ebonyi State in the Senate and a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, engaged in a heated exchange of words.
The confrontation was signposted by acerbic insults and personal attacks, during a session of the senate committee on ethics, privileges, and public petitions on the fresh petition submitted on allegations of sexual harassment made by suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Ezekwesili who joined Abiola Akiode, counsel to Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the petitioner, Zubairu Yakubu, at the senate committee hearing spoke in her usual bold and intellectual manner.
Yakubu had made moves to speak while Neda Imaseun, the senate committee chairman, was speaking, but he was asked to put off his mic.
When Ezekwesili made efforts to intervene, Nwaebonyi, who appeared as a witness for Akpabio, interjected her.
She then told him to “compose himself and stop making noise”, which immediately ignited an outburst from the senator.
“You’re a fool. What do you mean? Why are you talking to me like that? I will not take it. You’re an insult to womanhood. People like you cannot be here,” Nwaebonyi replied Ezekwesili.
Ezekwesili fired her salvo at Nwaebonyi's jugular, calling him a “hooligan”, further angering the lawmaker. According to her, going by his conduct, the legislator was nothing but a hooligan who should be ashamed of himself.
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