Former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh, has revealed that she was sexually harrased by the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.
While talking to Arise TV, Nunieh said she had to slap Akpabio for trying to “come up on me.”
She alleged that Akpabio relieved her of her duties because she refused to succumb to his sexual advances and corruption motives.
She also alleged that she refused to swear to his oath of allegiance.
She said: “I am the only Nigerian woman…the only Ogoni woman that has slapped him. I slapped him because of his plan B. He wanted me to take a blood oath of secrecy in Abuja.”
She added that Akpabio attempted to induce her and shut her up with money.
She said: “Since he couldn’t get me to take that money. He thought that Plan B..if he could come up on me….He didn’t know that I’m a Port Harcourt girl. Port Harcourt girls are not moved by money. By somebody telling me that he will make me a substantive MD.
“Akpabio’s meeting with me is either at Apo or Meridian or whatever. Those are his meetings. I slapped him.”
When asked by the breakfast show’s host to explain what she meant by “come up on me” and if she meant rape or sexual harassment, she said “harassment sounds better, not rape.”
She was asked if she was accusing the Minister of sexual harassment and she said: “Yes, I am accusing him.”
Nunieh recently accused Akpabio of masterminding the bombing of an oil pipeline.
She alleged that “Some pipelines were bombed just to remove me. A serving minister can go and bomb the pipeline in the Niger Delta. Somebody that has been a Governor, he has been a Senator and a Minister, he went to bomb the pipeline.”
While reacting to her allegations, Akpabio labeled Nunieh as an angry woman who encountered problems with her former husbands because of her temperament.
Akpabio said: “Let me just point this out. The last Managing Director that you mentioned. No matter the allegation, I wished that she would go to a hospital and get some injections and relax.
“I am saying that there is something wrong with her temperament. You don’t need to ask me. You can ask about four other husbands that she married. You also need to bring all the former husbands. At least bring four of them that she has married in the past to this studio, so that you ask them questions, one after the other. Because it looks like a character problem.
“What I am seeing here is that if somebody comes up and stands on a television channel wawawa…then the whole world…Nigerians love bad news. I am not that type of person. I am a minister and my job is to protect the citizens of this country and protect the administration of Mr. President.
“I must tell you that even President Buhari was not aware of all these things because I did not want to bother the man. He will be shocked.”
Nunieh responded by saying: “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’s 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 where I slapped him.”
Nunieh has persistently accused Akpabio of compelling her to perpetrate fraud, compelling her to inflate the budget of the NDDC, compelling her to take an oath of secrecy and high-scale corruption.
