REWIND: In 2020, ex-NDDC MD said she slapped Akpabio for ‘sexually harassing’ her

On July 13, 2020, Joy Nunieh, a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), alleged that she slapped Godswill Akpabio for sexually harassing her.

Nunieh made the allegation during an interview on Arise TV.

Akpabio, the incumbent senate president, was minister of Niger Delta affairs at the time.

During the interview, Nunieh said the incident occurred at Akpabio’s guest house in Abuja.

The ex-acting MD had said her reaction to the harassment proved her intolerance for “nonsense” as a woman from Rivers state.

Akpabio had denied the allegation through a statement issued by his media aide.

BACKGROUND

Prior to the allegation, Nunieh and Akpabio had made the headlines 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 hand him briefings.

But Nunieh alleged that the minister engineered her removal for failing to follow his “illegal orders”.

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 to also implicate Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the senate committee on NDDC.

On Friday, February 28, 2025, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, senator representing Kogi central, alleged that her troubles in the upper legislative chamber began after she rejected Akpabio’s sexual advances.

Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan recently engaged in a heated debate on the floor of the upper legislative chamber over a change in seating arrangements.