Former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh, has accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment.
Speaking on Monday during an interview on Arise TV, Nunieh said that the incident happened at Akpabio’s guest house in Abuja.
She stated that she had to slap the minister when he ‘came on’ to her, which proved her intolerance for “nonsense” as a woman from Rivers state.
Nunieh expressed;
Why did he not tell Nigerians that I slapped him in his guest house at Apo? I am the only woman that slapped Akpabio. He thought he could come up on me. He tried to harass me sexually. I slapped him. He tried to come on me. I am an Ogoni woman and nobody jokes with us. I showed Akpabio that Rivers women do not tolerate nonsense.
When asked further by the programme host, Reuben Abati, whether she was accusing Akpabio of rape or sexual harassment, Nunieh said;
Harassment sounds better, not rape. Yes, I am accusing him of sexual harassment. Akpabio is most interested in my love life. Did he want to be my seventh husband? That is why Akpabio told the world that I am temperamental. You know why Akpabio will tell the world that I am temperamental? Because of that incident I slapped him.
The former NDDC MD also accused Akpabio of trying to inflate the NDDC budget.
She said the minister directed her to include some projects from the refugee commission in the budget of the NDDC.
Akpabio wrote me to put a list of projects from the refugee commission in the budget of NDDC. Refugee commission is another Federal Government commission for IDPs.
How do you tell me to put some of their projects in the NDDC budget when we have so many things to do in the Niger Delta? How do you explain that?
Nunieh and Akpabio have made damning allegations against each other following the activities of the senate ad hoc panel investigating the alleged mismanagement of N40 billion by the interim management committee (IMC) of the NDDC.
Akpabio had told the panel that he knew nothing about the expenditure of the NDDC under Nunieh because she refused to give him briefings.
She however alleged that the minister engineered her removal for failing to follow his orders to partake in fraudulent activities at the commission.
Nunieh claimed that Akpabio asked her to change the dollars in the NDDC account; sack the head of the legal team who is from the north; remove all directors who refused to follow his instructions and also to implicate Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the senate committee on NDDC.
In his reaction to this, Akpabio accused her of being temperamental and having character flaws, which he alleged to be a reason for her supposed 4 failed marriages.
Watch video of her interview with Arise TV below;
(3) “My meetings with @Senator_Akpabio were either in Apo or Meridian, those are his meeting points…so I slapped him… I am accusing Akpabio of sexual harassment” – Joi Nuneih, Interim MD of NDDC, responds to allegations made by Niger Delta Minister, Godswill Akpabio pic.twitter.com/5v5HshCw5H
— ARISE News Feed (@ARISEtv) July 13, 2020
