Former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh, says she slapped Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, for sexually harassing her.
Nunieh, who spoke on Monday during an interview on Arise TV, said the incident happened at the minister’s guest house in Abuja.
She said she reacted that way to prove her intolerance for “nonsense” as a woman from Rivers State.
Nunieh said, “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.”
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.
Nunieh said, “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 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 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 plotted 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 the Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, Peter Nwabaoboshi.