By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, has said he will take up former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, within the Igbo traditional leadership for telling him to “shut up”.
Speaking on AIT’s Kaakaki on Monday, Nwaebonyi said the remark was disrespectful to his status as a red cap chief.
The Nation reports that Nwaebonyi had a 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.
Ezekwesili attended as a witness, alongside Abiola Akiode, counsel to Akpoti-Uduaghan, and petitioner Zubairu Yakubu. Nwaebonyi, testifying in defense of Akpabio, repeatedly interrupted Ezekwesili, prompting her to say, “compose yourself and stop making noise,” followed by, “please, will you shut up?”
The remark sparked a heated verbal exchange between the two.
However, reacting to the incident, Nwaebonyi maintained that such language was 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.
“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.”