Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi (Ebonyi North) has said he does not regret saying that a former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili, is an insult to womanhood.

Nwaebonyi said this during an interview on Channels Television after both of them had a heated exchange during the Senate ethics committee hearing on the sexual harassment allegation levelled against the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, by suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

According to Nwaebonyi, Ezekwesili referred to him as a hooligan during the hearing and told him to shut up despite being a Senator.

“It started when she was asked to be an oath because she said she was a witness. She said, ‘no she can’t be on oath, she can’t oath.’

“As a person, I said I am willing to be sworn on oath so that I can give my own evidence. I was addressing the presiding office. She turned to me and said, ‘Will you shut up your mouth, you are a hooligan.”

Nwebonyi said he was forced to reply Ezekwesili, saying: “You are the hooligan. For a mother like you, a grandmother of your age, a former minister of the federal republic to tell a sitting senator to shut up his mouth and added that I am a hooligan.”

He added that the former minister was not fair to him because she attacked him first.

“How can I regret the scenario? I gave it to her. Is it fair for her to address me that way? As a former minister of the federal republic and a grandmother, ask her first,” Nwaebonyi said.

ASA