A former managing director of the Interim Management Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ms Joi Nunieh, has sensationally revealed a closed-door encounter with the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, during which she had to slap him on the face to check him.
“I am the only Ogoni woman, the only Nigerian woman to slap his face. I slapped him because of his Plan B. He thought since he couldn’t get me to release the money, he thought of Plan B, if he could come on me; he didn’t know that I ‘am a Port Harcourt girl”, she alleged in an interview with Arise TV on Monday.
Nunieh, who was suspended from office in controversial circumstances, insinuated that after the encounter, Akpabio lacked the balls to intimate President Muhammadu Buhari on what transpired between them for obvious reasons.
“Why did he not tell the President why I slapped him; why did he not tell Nigerians the Plan B of insubordination? Why did he not tell Mr. President that I slapped him? Why did he not tell Nigerians that I slapped him? Why did he take me to guest house in Apo? Why did he not tell Nigerians what insubordination is all about?”
She further claimed the alleged sexual harassment by the minister prompted her decision to stop meeting with him informally. “Why did I stop to meet him? He told the Senate committee that I refused to meet him to have meeting. Why didn’t we have our meetings in his office? I told Mr. Akpabio that I will not go to any meeting outside his office. The last time he came to Port Harcourt, I did not go to Le’Meriden to meet him”.
According to Nunieh, Akpabio had always schedules meeting with her either at his guest house in Apo, Abuja or in a hotel. When he didn’t succeed in having her on bed, he then accused her of insubordination to pave way for her suspension from office. “When Akpabio saw that I cannot bring out the money, he now tried Plan B; then, a case of insubordination”, she alleged.
Responding to a question by a top flight journalist and former presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, on whether she was accusing Akpabio of attempted rape or sexual harassment, she responded, “Harassment sounds better, not rape. Yes, I am accusing him. Akpabio is most interested in my love life. Did he want to be my seventh husband? That’s why Akpabio told the world that I am temperamental; because of that incident that I slapped him”.
