An aide to former governor of Akwa Ibom State and now the minority leader of House Senate, Godswill Akpabio, Anietie Ekong, has been dragged to court for forcefully having canal knowledge of 30 years old Paula Lawrence, taking her nude picture and spreading same on social media.
Paula instituted a case against Akpabio’s media aide, Ekong at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, over an alleged sexual harassment. She is seeking N100m as damages for the emotional, psychological, ‘reputational’ pain and torture she had been caused as a result of his act.
In suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/121/2016, Paula accused Ekong of having carnal knowledge of her without her consent.
Paula’s counsel, Mr. Oseini Bamigbaiye, in the suit was seeking an order of the court to restrain Ekong from further harassing, threatening and invading the privacy of his client, and an order compelling him to tender an unreserved and written apologies in all the social media through which he defamed her.
According to Paula, a graduate of Theater Arts from University of Uyo, Akpabio’s aide drugged and had carnal knowledge of her and took her nude pictures and then circulated them on the social media after she met him in a hotel in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state in 2014.
According to the affidavit in support of the suit, the plaintiff (Paula), met with Ekong sometime in 2014 during the commissioning of the international stadium in Uyo and they exchanged numbers.
Paula said, they both met at a hotel in Uyo, where her nude picture was taken and circulated on social media after abusing her sexually.
“That in the room, Ekong brought out the bottle of red wine from the luggage in his wardrobe. At that time, I was pressed and had to use the toilet. Before I came back, he had poured the wine in the glass, drugged that that I drank from, while he drank from his.
When I wanted to drink from his glass of wine, he refused me, saying I should drink from mine. Shortly after drinking, I started feeling dizzy and drunk. He made love to me and I slept off till the next morning. I did not know that while I was drunk, he took nude pictures of me with his cell phone camera”. The case has been fixed for today, April 13, 2016.
