Akpabio apologises to Oshiomhole over constant brickbats

President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, openly apologised to Senator Adams Oshiomhole on Thursday for breaching an ‘agreement’ the two reached that Akpabio should stop making derogatory comments about the former Edo State governor.

Another tense moment occurred between the two on the floor of the Senate on Thursday when Akpabio revisited recent comments made by Oshiomhole where he described the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as a “home of thieves” and “populated by fraudsters.”

Earlier last week, the Senate President had also referenced a case closed by the Senate, where Oshiomhole was seen in a widely circulated video on social media, massaging the feet of a young woman on a flight.

Akpabio made the reference when Oshiomhole kicked against the confirmation of a former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye‑Ekiti (FUOYE), Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina, as a non-career ambassador on the grounds of allegations of sexual harassment.

The Senate President, while dismissing Oshiomhole’s opposition, had reminded the Senate of the incident between him and the young woman to buttress the fact that without evidence, it’s difficult to pass a judgment on anybody.

He said, “Okay, I don’t want to go outside what we are doing, I would have asked a question when there was a picture showing one of our senators on a plane massaging the leg of a girl.

“Senator Oshiomhole and your very good friend came to give me security information that we just ignored the message because we thought it was AI. But if you have another evidence, we have a petition before us; we can look if it’s not AI.”

On Thursday, Akpabio again revisited the NNPCL episode, which the Senate had long closed, when senators debated a motion on the need for the Senate to enforce its oversight powers over MDAs as enshrined in Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.

Oshiomhole, who was pained by Akpabio’s action, vehemently protested by insisting on being heard through a point of order.

When Akpabio saw that Oshiomhole was unrelenting, he yielded the floor to the former president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to speak.

Oshiomhole rose and announced to the Senate how he reached a “truce” with Akpabio to end their brickbats but expressed surprise that the Senate President reneged on his promise by constantly taunting him.

“I reached a truce with the Senate President that there will be no more issues. But Mr President has broken it by referring to a matter in the past.

Mr President, please protect vertically disadvantaged people in this Senate”, he said.

Responding, Akpabio admitted that he breached the agreement and apologised to Oshiomhole.

“Let me apologise to Senator Oshiomhole if whatever I said could have in any way offended him.

“I assure you I will never refer to your unsenatorial comments or bring any issue laid to rest to the fore again”, Akpabio added.

However, Akpabio explained he was merely using the Oshiomhole incident to illustrate a point he wanted to make that if senators expected heads of MDAs to respect them, the lawmakers themselves must exercise decorum in how they addressed attendees during public or investigative hearings by committees.

“Agreement is agreement”, he said, borrowing the popular phrase from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Mr Nyesom Wike, while singing and dancing.