The Nation, 13 July, 2020
Joy Nunieh, former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), says she slapped Godswill Akpabio, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, for sexually harassing her.
Speaking on Monday during an interview on Arise TV, Nunieh said the incident happened at the minister’s guest house in Abuja.
She said her reaction to the alleged harassment proved her intolerance for “nonsense” as a woman from Rivers state.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
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,” she said.
“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 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.
But Nunieh alleged that the minister engineered her removal for failing to follow his illegal orders.
“When we first came to the NDDC, on the day of going for the inauguration, he told me in the car that Madam MD, If you don’t do what I say, the same pen which I use to sign your letter, it will be the same pen I will use to remove you,” she had said.
Nunieh also alleged 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.
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